


Not as it Seems

by ravnicrasol



Category: Final Fantasy, The Novel's Extra, Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors, isekai - Fandom
Genre: Action, Adventure, Dwarf, Elf, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Inquisition, M/M, Magic, Minotaur - Freeform, Multi, Slavery, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-01-16 11:16:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18520366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravnicrasol/pseuds/ravnicrasol
Summary: Arwen is sent into a world of his own design. A fantasy ruled by magic and strength, and the only tools at his disposal are the knowledge of the setting he'd made and the plot of the original story.Now he will do everything in his power to survive and get back home.





	1. Chapter 1

I spend more time inside my head than out of it.

It's not much of a surprise, after all, the imagination always has so much more interesting things to offer than the world ever could handle.

It wasn't that the world didn't have its appeal, after all, it was in this reality that I had my family and friends. It was here that I made my career in computer programming (The closest thing to "real" magic that could ever exist; programming is, literally, turning thoughts and concepts into action with the click of a button).

Today was, to me, like any other day. The sky was pleasantly cloudy, the smell of rain hung in the air, a gentle breeze had been keeping my head clear while I'd been making my way back to my flat.

It was going to rain soon, the thought sent a slight cheery thought through me as I'd already made my plans for the evening.

With the door to my home locked behind me, I removed my coat and took to the kitchen to make myself a cup of warm coco. Nothing really got my head going quite as effectively as that piece of liquid heaven.

Beverage in hand, I went to the study and sat on my comfy leather chair while the computer turned on. The chair had been an investment I'd never regret, as quite the amount of hours were spent in it be it while I read or wrote.

Rummaging through various sites to check for updates, news, and the little things one checks upon when free of time, I finally set down the cup as it was now half-empty and I couldn't bring myself to wait any longer.

The headphones were brought upon my head and the world became alive with music. It'd start with some heavy metal and drum-prominent music to ease out of the fugue from work, but I knew the playlist by heart, and eventually it would patter off into other less intense categories.

My fingers danced across the keyboard.

Letters turned to words turned to phrases turned to paragraphs turned to pages turned to chapters. One after the other after the other, with no end in sight and one keystroke at a time. My mind wandered through the *now* of the story, of the sensations, the words, the feelings, the purpose. Every relevant detail of every moment made eternal in the digital ink.

__

> The more Lucas read the deeper the chill that settled in his bones, his eyes traversed the pages of the book but his mind refused to acknowledge what it was reading.  
> ”Whatever it is you found, spit it out.” Blaire growled impatiently, flicking a short lock of golden hair behind her ear, the dwarf managing to look marginally nervous despite the scowl. “We have to move.”  
> ”I…” Lucas’ fingers tightened on the book, he couldn’t form the words. He…

I frowned at the page, my fingers grinding to a halt.

> _He…_

__  


The frown deepened, the gears in my mind spinning without traction. A grimace crossed my face.

> _He shook his head in horror. “They were humans.”_

__  


I backtracked, no, that didn’t feel right. Another alternative danced through my thoughts, and it was quickly vetoed before it made it to the page. It didn’t feel, it didn’t feel right. I had to lean back in my chair and ponder, to get into Lucas’ headspace.

Think… think…

Blank.

With a sigh, I went to the kitchen with the now empty cup of coco, as good an excuse to get out of my chair as any. My mind remained with that instance of narrative rebellion even as I listlessly prepared myself a second cup. Why was I having so much trouble figuring out how the main character of my story would react to the plot-twist?

Grumbling, my return to the chair was unceremonious, with the warmth of the beverage and the whirl of the computer fans the only company I had.

A ding warned me of an incoming chat message.

> **> Hello. I’m a big fan of your work. Wanted to use the characters/setting to do a story of my own >.>**

That got a raised eyebrow out of me. This was the first time someone asked me permission to do a spinoff of my story. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.

__

> _> Sure, so long as y ou give credit and send me the link when you’re done. Did you have an ything special in mind?_

The reply came a second afterwards

> **> Oh, it’s a sort of character insert >.< Already have a draft!**

A pastebin link popped up in the chat, my curiosity peaked, and I clicked it.

The screen flashed blinding white, so intense I had to cover my eyes, feeling as if it was engulfing everything around me.

Then, it all went dark and I was left falling.

Falling down down down.

Down into the void.

“Oof.” Cold stone hit me and pain shot through my lower back.

The rest of my body continued the fall and I was left crumpled on the stone floor. I groaned and tried to alleviate the pain but to no avail. Eyes fluttered under the sunlight leaving me half-blinded in its intensity. I had to blink and groan while partially blind and definitely stunned.

Dazed and in pain, I barely had the time to react when hands suddenly set out to besiege me. There were muttered hurried voices and instantly I felt how they were pulling at my clothes, violently yanking at them as if desperately trying to undress me.

I fought, swatting as the four? Six? Hands sought to empty my pockets and rip my clothes off. “Hey!” Kicking and screaming, the hands scattered as quickly as they’d appeared, I barely caught sight of four children running away and turning at the first corner, vanishing into the darkness of the alleyways. I’d been a split second away from starting to chase them down but froze as my brain finally decided to kick in.

Where was this place? This wasn’t my house.

Shock, fear, my head swivelled, I was in an alleyway, the floor was made of cold cobblestones, the houses at either side were wood and orange bricks, the sky was clear and the sun was blazing down on me. There was a horrid scent lingering in the air that was making me feel nauseous, and the sound of tumultuous people wasn’t very far away.

I flinched when naked feet touched the cobblestone floor, my eyes widened. Those fuckers had taken my shoes! It wasn’t just that, it was also my belt, glasses, wristwatch…! I instantly understood what had happened, those kids had robbed me!

Eyes flying towards the alley they’d disappeared into, I stopped myself from trying to chase them down before the instinct grew too much. I wasn’t fast and they undoubtedly knew this place… wherever it was. Any chance I could’ve had to catch up to them was close to nill at this point. I growled, trying to make sense of what was going on.

I probably should find the police? I turned towards the sound of the crowd to follow it, ignoring the smell that hung in the air and really not wanting to find out what it was in greater detail.

Reaching the main street was a simple manner, it was but a handful of steps away. And yet, when the narrow streets opened into the bustling main-street, an electric shot ran through my spine. I watched the crowd and realized something was not right. The clothes, the strange looks, the way they moved, the carts, the stands, the… the…

The lizard-man with a metal chain around its neck pulling a wood cart loaded with what seemed to be crates.

Agitation began to seed itself into my chest, my eyes darted all over the place faster and more desperately as more and more strange details began to assault me. This wasn’t true, this couldn’t be, it couldn’t be real.

Eyes wide, it wasn’t until I turned towards the end of the main road that my heart froze.

There was a castle, surrounded by a sandy brown wall littered with dark black spikes through its upper edges. The itself castle was massive and built with lime green stones, surrounded with a dozen imposing black pillars that rose into the sky and doubled the castle’s height. Each a perfectly cylindrical tower, each a spear that pierced the heavens.

My eyes weren’t on the towers, they were on the gate of the walls. Atop these gates was a coat of arms adorning the pinnacle of the archway. It was a relatively simple design, three black snakes being shredded by the claws of a horned golden chimera on top of a white and red grid background.

But I knew that coat of arms, seen it over and over and over again within my own head. I had spent weeks upon weeks drawing it and drawing it again as the image had been so clear in my mind but so blotched in its implementation when transformed to paper.

It was the Goldfield royal family’s coat of arms. Which was impossible because there was no such thing as a royal family called Goldfield. It didn’t exist, it couldn’t.

And yet… and yet I couldn’t deny it. I knew all too well.

I’d written so much about this place, how could I not? I felt my heart skip a beat and flutter inside my chest with a mixed sense of panic, confusion, and… something else. Something exciting. My mouth opened and closed, and in an instant I managed to consolidate the whole of the chaos in my head into two words.

“The fuck?”

I was in my story.

It was impossible, but nothing else could explain it. The words rebounded inside my head over and over as I walked in a daze.

Tap Tap Tap

Each of my steps slowly took me down the street, my eyes wide as my brain tried to take in everything that was happening around me. There was just so much drawing my attention, screaming for me to take a closer look. The items being sold on the stalls, the strangely colored fruit, the floating tower on the eastern side of the castle, the faces, God! The faces!

There was just so much! Every person, every single one, the crowd was mostly humans but! BUT...!

My heart kept skipping every other beat, jumping in shock every time I saw a “person” that wasn’t human. The pointy eared elves, the short stocky dwarves, the scaled kobolds, the beast-kin, the… the… My jaw may or may not have been unhinged this entire time as I walked at the side of the road so as to not block the flow of people and carts and carriages and horses and… everything else! There were so many new things!

Fingers remained slowly caressing the smooth stone walls of houses and the rough worn wood of stalls and door frames, my feet felt the rough heated cobblestone, my sense of touch constantly reminding me this was real. Real as the ringing in my ears as hundreds of voices and noises bounced inside my head and a thousand scents assaulted my nose. The very vibrations against the soles of my feet were adding to the sensory overload.

It was real.

The panic was very slowly turning to elation, the beating of in my chest was speeding up; I continued walking up the crowded street. I couldn’t believe it, I still couldn’t believe it. I had to just stop and lean against the wall to recover my breath, wide eyes taking in everything and anything. Awe shook my very core. I was left dumbstruck watching it all unfold in front of my eyes in a daze.

“Turhiuk?”

The word snapped me out of the stupor, my mouth clamped shut as I was abruptly made aware someone was talking to me. I looked down at the finely dressed dwarf. The man was about as tall as my waist and had a very shortly trimmed beard, coal black eyes staring at me with keen interest and sharp determination.

“Huh?” Was all I could manage to say. I hadn’t understood the word he’d spoken, I was very sure of it. This fact made me take another second to look at the non-human and the fine made silk blue robes he wore.

“Turhiuk tefdit?” He repeated, looking me up and down as if trying to solve a very interesting riddle.

“Oh, sorry, I don’t speak dwarvish.” I sheepishly scratched the back of my head.

That made him tilt his head slightly. “Frauhua? Kukclica?” The words felt like they were different in some fundamental way to the first ones; was he able to speak multiple languages? He clearly seemed intent in communicating with me.

Unfortunately I understood none of what he’d said, so I just shook my head. A sinking feeling settled in the back of my mind, more like a certainty. Now that my ears were more closely paying attention to the voices in the crowd, I was not picking a single word in English.

I mean, sure, in my story I’d described the various languages in this world such as the gruff clicking of the dwarvish language and the sing-song of the kobolds and goblins, but… a part of me had had this expectation that I would’ve understood at least human common.

The dwarf didn’t seem bothered, instead he appeared curious and more eager than a moment ago. He rubbed his chin and looked me over up and down once more. “Cu krittie.” He extended his hands towards me, showing both palms.

Wait, was he trying to introduce himself? I took a second to think over what I knew about the dwarves in the world I’d made. Their culture was introduced near the beginning of the original story, I had based it a little less in the generic “clan” mentality that they usually had in fantasy stories and instead had used Korean society from the epoch of nobility and the bone-rank system as a strong source of inspiration.

But for the life of me I couldn’t remember any customs relating to showing the palms of their hands. Maybe this was from some subset of dwarves that had developed a cultural variant?

Feeling slightly curious, I imitated the gesture. “Arwen.” I spoke my name, wondering where this would take me.

The dwarf immediately reached out and grasped my wrists, glancing at the palms closely for a moment before letting go with a vigorous nod.

What was that?

“Cu Krittie.” He repeated, this time pressing the palms of his hands against his chest.

“Arwen?” I reiterated, repeating the gesture.

The dwarf nodded. “Arwen.” He pointed at me, then gestured with a wave of his hand for me to follow. “Xeta.”

I remained where I was glancing at him curiously.

Cu stopped his steps and made a gesture towards his mouth, stopping and glancing at me again, the look in his face clearly showed he was trying to explain something to me. And me being completely unsure what that was, I tilted my head. At that, the dwarf touched his robes, then glanced around once he confirmed not to have what he’d been looking for. His gaze settled on a stand and his finger pointed at it. I saw the apples on it, then back at Cu. The dwarf made a motion as if grabbing an invisible apple and then biting on it. Immediately after he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

Food.

Was he offering to buy me a meal? My stomach decided to growl, how long had I been walking in a daze? I didn’t know, but I was certainly sure I was hungry now. Cu let out a rumbling laugh at the sound patting his own belly.

“Uh… sure.” I nodded sheepishly and followed along, happy to have met someone friendly enough to offer me something to eat.

Even without my shoes, things didn't seem to be so bad.

The dwarf seemed quite smart, he'd caught caught my approval even through the language barrier and immediately began to lead the way, talking amicably with the clicking throaty language I was mostly sure was dwarvish. 

It was frankly music to my ears, I hadn’t the knowledge or experience creating languages and now that I was listening to it I was all too sure it didn't sound like anything I’d heard before. A sense of wonderment washed over me as my steps followed Cu, a whole world of details I hadn’t made were being arrayed before my eyes.

Thoughts of going back were pushed to the side, I was sure there was a way to get back, at least I was mostly certain. The protagonist of my story had been a teenager dragged from the modern world, and the whole narrative was meant to end with him getting back through some reverse-summoning magic that would put him right where he left without any time having transpired in “the real world”.

I’d never gotten that far in what I’d published, but there had been a myriad of dropped hints throughout the narrative showing it was a definite possibility. Though the characters themselves hadn’t been sure about it at the time.

This thought lead me to consider something else, if this was the world of my story, where in the narrative had I been dumped into it? Before the story? During? After? Or maybe whoever brought me here had altered the timeline from the start? Would there be no Hero protagonist at all?

In the main plot, the human lineage of Goldfield would fall into ruin due to a coup that came soon after the slave revolts left the kingdom in tatters... so the fact that the banners were still in the castle clearly meant I couldn’t have been brought to a point after the revolts... if they happened at all.

The train of thought came to an end when Cu opened a door to a… tavern?

“How cliché.” I thought to myself with a chuckle while noting we weren’t on the main road anymore. I took a second to glance around, it seemed we were closer to the city walls, there was only one alley wide enough for carriages and horses while the rest were more cramped, and there were a couple large wooden doors on the building adjacent to this one that probably lead to the stables for whatever travellers came about.

A wry chuckle escaped me at the sign atop the door, merely a symbol of a wooden mug, no words nor glyphs, a sign of the illiteracy of the vast majority of people in this world.

Stepping inside, I was greeted with the scent of stale ale, dirt, and sweat. The windows were open, but the lighting was still poor, there weren’t any candles nor a fireplace to give further sources of light, most likely because it was around summer… at least that was my guess considering the pleasant warm air from outside. It was devoid of patrons at this hours, but the slight scent of meat told me that we probably missed the normal lunch hour by not that much.

Cu didn’t wait for me as he went towards the bar, a large muscular man stood behind the bar. Half of the owner’s face was hidden under a layer of discolored burn-scars, the other half was settled into a stony glare.

Something tickled in the back of my mind as I looked at the balding man, at the short brown hair that covered only the back of his head, at the horns that grew from his temples, cut off, serrated so as to leave them no more than a handful of inches in length. There was certainly something about this person that rung a bell in me, had he been a background character for the protagonists of the story?

Pausing in thought, I rubbed my chin and frowned. Minotaur, cut horns, scarred face… the man was a beast-kin, but… no, the protagonists never slept in a tavern while in the capital. Perhaps he was a background character for one of the side-characters? I was starting to ruffle my hair when the sound of someone clearing his throat drew me back to reality.

Cu was waving at me from one of the tables, having already settled down with two mugs of ale.

Hiding the grimace at the thought of alcohol, I reminded myself that ale was the equivalent of water in these parts since drinking water inside most towns and cities was the equivalent of playing the disease-lottery. So I sat down and took a sip of my mug of the not-that-good-to-begin-with drink, the distaste was now not quite that easy to hide, and though Cu gave me an odd look, he just laughed and raised his own mug, drinking heartily from it.

“Wish we could understand each other.” I muttered under my breath, glancing back at the tavern bar-keeper without really drinking much more. The expressionless man wasn’t looking my way, instead seeming to be focused on going through the empty tables and cleaning them.

“Euk caip.” Cu drew my attention back to him with a rushed chuckle, bringing out something from his pocket. I glanced at it and frowned, wait, was that…?

My eyes widened as the crystal marble was placed on the table, it couldn’t be… could it? “Is this a mana tester?” I mumbled with a whisper. I know they had some other name, but they were what I’d called them in my head throughout the whole of the story.

They were exceedingly rare and very very expensive. The little fuckers were made by elves and fairies through evaporating mana-infused water, the mana would crystalize into tiny dust particulate, and then they would take this dust and melt it like one would glass to form these orbs.

Well, there were a shit-ton of other things the mana-dust was used for, hell, the dust itself could be used to test for magic, but it would be single use rather than the potential infinite reutilization the mana tester allowed for. I was quickly feeling quite giddy at the object as I restrained myself from just snatching it from the dwarf’s hands.

“Tura cak ecururu mioca.” Cu spoke slowly, clearly trying to explain something to me. He held the orb between both hands and raised it to level eye with my face. Closing his eyes, the dwarf appeared to focus.

I gasped as I saw a brown speck appear inside the glass orb, growing in size and brilliance until it became a soft bluish sparkle that danced within the object with the brilliance of a candle’s flame. That meant Cu had an affinity for lightning magic, but not enough mana that he could be a mage. Probably the best he could do would be a parlor trick or two.

“Bubu ou.” The sparkle died and he extended his hands towards me, offering the orb.

I gulped as I looked at the object, this thing must have cost him a small fortune. “Are you sure?” I muttered worriedly, I really wanted to grasp it, but I also didn’t want to break it. I remembered quite clearly how I’d narrated that this item was worth enough to feed a family of seven for a couple of years… How had he gotten one to begin with was beyond me, but surely it was Cu’s most precious treasure.

“Bubu ou!” The dwarf nodded eagerly and shoved it closer to me.

Gingerly, I took the glass marble with both my hands, being very very careful not to drop it. The moment the sphere touched my fingers, the skin that was in contact with the object became numbed as if they’d been dunked under freezing water for a while, a clear sign this was mana-glass and not just some random normal marble.

I took a long moment to ponder what to do next, at the point of the story when the protagonist was tested, he’d been told that all he had to do was focus on the strongest feeling he was currently having and that his mana would immediately express itself into the orb.

Closing my eyes, I gulped and focused. What was my strongest emotion right now?

That was a simple answer. I focused on the wonderment that had been burning throughout my chest throughout this whole time. The exhilaration of being in the world I had spent countless hours creating. At the curiosity and joy and anticipation that burned from the pit of my stomach all the way to the center of my chest.

A strong tingling sensation spread from my fingertips to the whole of my hands, and I opened my eyes to then flinch at the dazzling multi coloured light that was blinding me. I flinched and unwittingly dropped the orb.

“Ah!” Cu screamed and dove for it even as the glow began to diminish. The diminutive man having managed to grab it before it shattered on the floor.

The both of us let out a sigh of relief, but I was left dazed and blinking while staring into the void while my brain began to process what had just happened.

I had magic.

I blinked and couldn’t stop the stupid grin from appearing on my lips.

I had magic.

“KAAAAAAAH!” Cu screamed at the top of his lungs, startling me, I saw the smile splitting his face as he leapt to his feet, mug raised in his hand and raucously laughing. He danced around his chair and as soon as he downed his mug circled the table towards my right side, lifted my mug, and offered it to me.

This time I couldn’t hold myself back, distaste alcohol or not, there was a burning joy in my chest at the revelation I had magic. I grinned from ear to ear and lifted it. “For magic!” I shouted, bringing it to my lips and drinking several long gulps.

Immediately the taste reduced me to a coughing fit, to which Cu patted my back to help me get my breathing back.

“Makic!” Cu said loudly, trying to imitate the word but clearly not knowing the meaning in English, placing the orb in his pocket.

*Clink.*

The feeling of something metallic closing around my left wrist startled me into turning to face away from Cu. My eyes met those of the bartender as he stepped back from me, drawing what was clearly a short war-hammer from his belt as he kept his distance.

I blinked and frowned at this, my eyes going down to my left wrist and finding a thin silver-metallic bracelet with a red stone on it, the closing mechanism needing a key for it to open. The cogs in my head began to spin as it took me a second to recognize what it was.

A magic sealing device.

My eyes turned towards Cu who was now several steps away from me. “Hey, what…?” I was about to stand up but felt woozy. My eyes were quite abruptly hard to focus on the dwarf or the hornless minotaur. The effort that took me to remain standing upright was becoming greater by the second, and as I stumbled back, glancing between Cu and the bartender, something clicked on the back of my mind.

Minotaurs that had had their horns cut off were those that had been exiled due to them having committed a crime within their lands. Things like dishonourable defeat, rebellion, murder, theft…

...or slave trading.

What little of my mind hadn’t become blurred felt startled, and I turned in an attempt to run for the door.

But my feet were too clumsy in this dizzied state and I fell.

I felt myself being restrained as I blacked out.


	2. Slave and Master

It was cold, cold and uncomfortable. Those were the first things that crossed my mind when I woke up. My mind felt sluggish, and it hurt, it hurt a lot actually. Why did my head hurt so much? I groan and sit up, trying to reach up to my head but finding my arm unable to advance any further as something tugged at my wrist.

Thoughts shift and I move my focus to my wrist, seeing the thick metal cuffs there that held firmly onto my wrists. Eyes narrowing, the focus trails up the chain that linked my wrist to the wall.

Then I remembered. My eyes widened and I tugged at the chain harder though without success. My focus spread and I began to look around in an attempt to find out where I was and what was going on.

It was a small room, tiny actually, barely a meter wide and one and a half long. I barely fit sitting down and the roof was so close I would likely bump my head against it if I were to stand tall.

It was made of wood save for the floor. The only source of light was the small barred window on the otherwise solid wood door right in front of me, the chains my wrists extending out of the room through the tiny space between the bars.

Panic swelled up to my throat, a deep sense of claustrophobia and entrapment followed. The pace of my lungs hastened and my heart rate shot through the roof. I was instantly feeling out of breath even as my hands moved to press against the wooden walls to push them away… to no avail.

Clumsily rising to my feet, I reached to grab the bars on the door to pull myself closer so I could look outside.

The sight wasn’t any better, the outside of my oversized coffin was a corridor with several other doors much like my own, the door was thick so my view angle was poor, I could only see the three doors in front of my own, and now that I was up, I realized the source of light appeared natural, though that too was not within my line of sight.

“Hey!” I shouted, grasping the bars firmly and shaking the door. The door had other plans, however, so it decided not to even budge. “HEY!” I rattled my chains against the metal bars.

Only silence greeted me.

I decided I did not like that. “HEY!” I kept screaming, rattling the chains against the bars, shaking the door as best I could, and overall making as much noise as I could manage. I kicked at the door, and even tried forcing it open by placing my back against the opposite wall and my feet against the door handle.

Nothing. It didn’t so much as groan, and not only that, no one had answered my call.

Panting slightly, I fell down to my ass and breathed heavily to recover my breath, the small room forcing me to bend my knees. It was only then that I realized I wasn’t wearing the clothes I’d come in. These were made of… wool maybe? They were a dirty gray and were tattered, though frankly more than clothes they were an oversized burlap sack.

It was rough, coarse, and uncomfortable. Much like this room I was currently at.

And yet the bracelet on my wrist was the exact opposite. Now that I had little else to do I looked at the item that had been put on me to ‘*seal my magic*’. It was thin and frankly speaking looked delicate. It absolutely did not look like something a slave would wear. Tilting my head, I pondered on that, what had been the rules regarding mage slaves in the Frostshield kingdom?

Oh, yeah, a prohibitively expensive license was needed, and the item to suppress the mage’s magic was a thick collar meant to only ever allow magic to be cast when it was under direct orders.

This bracelet on the other hand had some sort of mechanism that required me to pinch two places at opposite sides for it to open, making it impossible for me to remove on my own. Why was this? I didn’t remember mentioning such an item in the story, frankly speaking it looked expensive. Though I was now sure that Cu catching me had looked like happenstance more than him specifically having been on the prowl for a mage to enslave.

I pushed the thought aside. It didn’t matter why I wasn’t wearing the slave-mage-collar, what did matter was that I was currently locked up and I did not like that. With not much else to do, I remained seated, going back to screaming some more, tugging at the chains and making them rattle against the door.

For an hour, I kept at this, taking short breaks every couple minutes to try picking out whether there were any other noises to be heard.

“Guof redra Cu minim brag!” A coughing man shouted from the outside, the sound muffled through the door.

I startled, rushing to the bars on the window. “Hello? Hey! There’s someone there right!?” I shouted, but got no answer. There was someone else down here, I knew it, but it appeared they were ignoring me. I hadn’t understood a single word they’d said, but I did pick up on one thing: Cu, the name of the dwarf that had drugged me. Well, whatever, I decided that better be a noisy headache than a quiet spectator.

“HEY!” I shouted more loudly than before, bundling a bit of the chains and using it to hit against the metal bars on the door. It rung loud enough to hurt my ears, but I wasn’t deterred. “HEY! HEY! HEY!” I grew a rhythm out of the act, slow but persistent.

“Redra Cu minim brag! Redra Cu minim brag!” The voice appeared startled as it spoke, desperate even. What was going on? What was it trying to say?

Another sound drew my attention, something heavy and metallic being opened and steps following close behind. I was instantly against the door’s window and trying to look out to spot whatever was approaching. I didn’t need to wait long, a certain black-eyed short-bearded dwarf appeared in front of the door. There was someone behind him carrying a torch, but the angle didn’t let me see them.

“You fucking piece of shit!” I seethed, doing my best to kill him with my gaze. “This is what you do to people? Enslave them?”

Cu for his part smirked while saying nothing at all, reaching up and grasping the base of the chain that was keeping my wrists linked to the door. I saw a dim whitish glow emanate from his hands.

A spark of lightning leapt from his touch towards the chains.

My whole body seized up, every muscle on my body became brutally tense before I could fully register the action taking place. “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” The muffled scream escaped my locked jaw, mind reeled as the electric shock dissipated, it had lasted no more than a couple seconds, but having felt like it had been at least a minute.

When the electrocution had stopped, I realized I’d fallen down and had spasmed on the floor. That… that had been magic hadn’t it? My thoughts spun dizzily in an attempt to become organized. Panting for breath, I heard a series of clicks followed before the door opened, my wrists were pulled forwards and I could only kneel while trying not to get dragged through the floor, leaving me face-to-face with the dwarf.

Cu stepped forward, holding my chain with his hand. He looked amused at my current state. Behind him stood a young looking short-horned minotaur, one with a certain resemblance to a certain barkeep. He looking quite fierce despite the young age, specially holding the handle of a mace in a very unfriendly manner in one hand, the torch in the other.

Spotting my focus on the minotaur, Cu spoke again, the smirk broadening. “Kerui?” He asked smugly.

I don’t know what that meant, but I did know he was mocking me. Looking at the dwarf I forced the hatred down as I let out the most customer-service smile I could muster, speaking with a saccharine sweetness while tilting my head slightly to the side. “Fuck you.”

Cu didn’t appear to notice the hostility, but the minotaur did. He said something, but it was too slow. I’d reached out to grasp at the neck of Cu’s robe and pulled the dwarf at the same time I aimed my forehead to his stupid smug ugly face.

It hurt, a lot, fucking dwarves and their thick skull. I didn’t let go even after the first impact, pulling my head back for a second headbutt.

I didn’t get the opportunity, something powerful had shoved me backwards and Cu was forcefully yanked out of my grip. I barely got the time to see the fist as it impacted my face. The world became a swirl and I collapsed on the floor, groaning in pain.

Some screams followed though I couldn’t readily understand anything in my stunned state. What I did notice was the spark of light right before the shock hit me through the cuffs.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH” More screaming ensued, this time it wasn’t just a couple seconds. Cu had cranked up the intensity and was now letting out a jolt that would last several seconds, pausing for one, and then unleashing the next jolt right away.

I would’ve flopped on the floor like a fish out of water had it not been because the cell was so small I could barely move. My whole body convulsed from the tension, barely able to gasp for air between the bursts of electric agony. But Cu had other ideas, and he didn’t relent one bit as he continued.

Three more times, and I was left on the floor swallowing lungfuls of much needed air. I could barely move let alone make a coherent thought. The iron taste in my mouth told me that either the minotaur’s ministrations or my own electrically powered locked-jaw had probably split a lip or something, but frankly speaking, my whole body felt numb right now in the most painful way it could.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d heard the sound of something sizzling.

That was why it took me more than I’d like to admit to process the fact that I was being dragged by the cuffs out of the cell. The minotaur forced me up to shaking naked feet and yanked me so I’d move forward. Cu was ahead, holding the chain, sparks dancing from his fingers, ready to cook me some more at a moment’s notice. He spoke at me, but frankly at this point I just couldn’t have been able to understand him even if he’d spoken in English, nor did I make an effort to.

Being half dragged by the minotaur while my legs kept shaking like jelly, I was lead down the small corridor and through a barred door. I didn’t know our destination, but it wasn’t very far, all we had to do was walk down the short corridor and to a stone room that was adjacent to the cell area. Was this a basement? It didn’t seem very big.

What did seem big, and heavy, was the metal door that lead to the stone room Cu was leading me to. The door was clearly far more sturdy than the one for the prison area. My eyes sought around while I tried to make sense of where I’d been lead to.

I had thought it would’ve been a torture area so Cu would discipline me, but… it didn’t look like it. It was a windowless room devoid of decorations save for a small stone altar near its center and the couple wooden stools on either side of it. The dwarf wasted no time to tie the chains around the pillar, tightly enough my hands were forced to be in touch with it.

He and the minotaur spoke, and it was at this point I just up and stopped trying to pay attention to them, my eyes drifting towards the altar. It was meter and a half tall and about as thick as my torso. Save for a circular narrower area that had been where Cu had tied my chain, every other bit of the stone was covered with slightly glowing silvery lines that criss crossed and moved with one another in patterns that heavily reminded me of a certain alchemic series.

It was a magical artifact, that much I was certain of, but I couldn’t figure out what use it had. My first instinct had been to fear this was one of the two artifacts in the setting that would rewrite someone’s personality into making them a willing and eager slave to their master. But I discarded the thought, those two objects were far larger and had used gold for their single-use magical circuitry, not silver.

The next fear was that this would be one of those artifacts that would carve the victim’s mind until nothing but a hollow husk of their personality was left behind, effectively turning them into a flesh-automaton unable to think for themselves… but again I discarded it, the flesh-dolls learned far too slowly and they would not obey orders they didn’t understand.

And it seemed English was not an existing language in this setting.

No, the altar must have some other use. But what? Silver circuitry was brutally expensive to make in components alone, and that was without accounting for commission costs from whatever mage was skillful enough to do it. I racked my brains as I tried to make sense of the puzzle before me, getting a growing headache instead.

So what the fuck was this guy up to? With my strength returning to me, I glanced back at the still talking minotaur and dwarf. I spotted an odd looking knife on Cu’s hand, rather, what caught my attention were the copper colored magical circuitry on its pommel that ran all the way up and through the blade itself.

That was a magical artifact of the cheapest kind. Copper circuitry was meant to cast a specific spell at the will of the wielder as many times as it was possible before the stored mana ran out. Copper magical-circuits couldn’t handle the fluctuation of mana intensity from a living being pouring their energy to fuel it, so they relied on drawing from an internal source instead.

And even mana stones were horribly inefficient when it came to mana storage capacity. In other words, copper-circuit artifacts were the poor-man’s enchanted blade. Use the special effect a couple times and then see it become a glorified paperweight.

I blinked at that thought as I turned to look at the pillar, and then remembered how elated Cu had been when he’d tested me for magic.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, a floating piece of text appeared in front of me.

> **> In the original setting, it didn’t make sense that copper-class artifacts couldn’t be recharged. It made less sense that the ‘best’ way to reuse them was to dismantle and then rebuild them from scratch. That is very bad for the environment! >.>   
>  > So I tweaked things a bit. Now it’s possible to recharge copper-class artifacts. Though it requires some specially made tools to do so... that and every time it’s recharged it will need more mana for the next recharge. Yay recycling! ヽ(•‿•)ノ**

My eyes widened, startled as I read the floating prompt one more time and watching it vanish into thin air like smoke in the wind.

Something was unclasped from my wrist, I vaguely noticed it was the same bracelet they had put on me back at the tavern. Shock and fear spread across my body when I saw the cruel smile on Cu’s face. I immediately tried to struggle, my mind dimly remembering that forceful mana extraction was not a pleasant experience… but to no avail, the minotaur forced my palms against the altar when Cu pressed the dagger against the altar.

The silver circuitry lit up.

A cold shiver ran down my spine, the palms of my hands that had before been touching the altar’s side now felt completely glued to it. Cold numbness was spreading from the point of contact up my arms, I struggled to pull back but couldn’t move my hands. The icy branches climbing up my arms pierced through my shoulders into my chest, touching the heat that was hidden there.

The tendrils of power pierced into the heat and began to suck on it like a mosquito drinking lifeblood.

Instantly, ice became fire. My eyes told me that there were only some pretty lights happening in the pilar, but the rest of my senses were telling my chest and arms were being turned inside out.

It burned, it seared muscle and skin and everything within me; it burned, it hurt, it burned, I screamed. I screamed louder, lava was pouring down my arms, a thousand red hot needles puncturing flesh and bone; strips of skin torn off by red hot pokers. I gasped and screamed louder, my blood was boiling, my bones were being vaporized. The claws of fire dug deeper into my chest, my vision turned red, my very being crackling under the hellish flames of forced extraction.

Time was eternal, there was only pain and fire. I couldn’t stop screaming, screaming until my voice was reduced to coughing fits and senseless ramblings. All senses were reduced to the flames. There was nothing else. It burned like I’d been plunged arms-first into a vat of acid; like having scissors rip my skin one strip at a time; like having my blood become alive and trying to escape by ripping my arms apart from the inside.

The agony just didn’t stop.

I don’t know how long I spent there, after a certain point my mind just stopped being there for half the time, leaving behind only the blurred red memory with nothing else to go with it.

When I came back to reality, I was in my cell again.

I was shaking viciously, my throat burnt and felt dry and hoarse, my whole body felt cold and numb and too sensitive at the same time. Everything was a half-formed thought, and a disgusting scent of voided bodily fluids permeated the air. Vaguely I knew I was the source of the smell, but at the same time I just didn’t have the energy to care. I was thirsty, even breathing was painful as it moved through my abused throat.

But there was no water to be had, no food waiting for me, nothing. I was alone, locked like an animal, little more than a glorified walking battery.

Fear gripped at my chest at the knowledge the dwarf would take me to the pillar again sooner or later, a sinking sense of despair settled to the pit of my stomach as I stopped myself from screaming out of fear my throat would give out and I’d go mute. My whole body shuddered and I looked up at the darkness that came from the door’s barred window.

A single thought made it through the molasses of my mind before I fell asleep.

I had to get out of here.

###  **_**

###  **-Cu Krittie**

Cu of the noble family of Krittie of the sixth royal rank sat down on his leather chair as he closely observed the daggers that had been re-enchanted by his new slave throughout the past three days. They were simple things, even in the list of copper enchantments, the daggers would be at the very bottom, the magic meant to temporarily make them sharper up to three or four times before getting spent.

Considering the costs of the enchanted recharge array and the time it had taken him to find a suitable enough source of mana, just selling these daggers would result in a loss rather than profit. But it didn’t matter, the reason he had dragged his newest acquisition kicking and screaming to feed the recharging magic was to properly gauge the limitations as to what could and couldn’t be done with the human as the source for the mana.

Cu brought out his marble abacus and played with the numbers in his head in tune with his fingers. His understanding of magic may not be at the level of a court mage, but he’d been of nobility and had a minor talent for magic, so of course he’d been educated in the principles behind how to better administrate the consumption of magic and what were the best ways to more easily recharge it and also what not to do to avoid hindering his potential.

Slowly, the black beads danced up and down their wooden rails. For Cu, though the experience was not very unpleasant considering he had the practice to feed his mana to the altar, he had only managed to recharge two spent daggers in a single day, whereas his new “guest” had recharged five in the same amount of time. With the amount being reduced the second and then third as clear signs of his growing exhaustion. But the complication came in that some of the daggers had been spent and this was their second recharge… Cu frowned, he knew the more times it was spent the more magic would be required to recharge, but…

Hm… he rubbed his chin, should he consider between the first and second recharge the mana requirement was doubled? No, it was probably more though not by much.

Glancing at the number, Cu guessed that, as a rough estimate, his newest pet would be able to give a first-recharge to two high-end copper artifacts every second day; though he doubted such a pace could be kept for long. He recalculated so as to avoid quickly burning out his newest asset, halving the estimate, giving four days to do the task.

If the work was constant, and already accounting for the purchase of spent copper artifacts as well as food for the human, Cu would be getting profit from the array’s purchase within the second month. Good thing the slave had been acquired for free and he’d not needed to get the license for it.

Things were looking up for Cu.

So once every four days, the slave would be made to recharge the artifacts. That left three days that were unoccupied.

“Rainer.” Cu called out as he leaned back on his chair, putting down the abacus.

The slave quickly walked to his master’s side, the young minotaur bowing his head as he did. “Yes, master?”

“What use do you think you could give to the new slave?”

Rainer frowned as he scratched at his horn in thought. “Since he can’t understand our language, I would make him work with moving inventory, loading and moving the boxes.”

Cu pondered, before shaking his head. “No, it has to be something that doesn’t exhaust him physically too much, otherwise his effectiveness recharging the artifacts would be hindered.” A pause and a thought. “But you are correct that his lack of understanding of our tongue places a severe limitation on his usefulness.”

“The kitchen perhaps?” Rainer offered with a sneer. “He is already rather weak, I doubt he’d have good use elsewhere.”

“That seems a good option.” Cu nodded. “Though he is to cook the food of the other slaves, not my own. That way Yselda can focus on my meals and use the free time to teach him.”

“Of course.” The minotaur nodded. “Starting tomorrow?”

That made the dwarf frown slightly. “No, give him another day of isolation without food but get him clean at first hour the day after, I want him properly motivated to earn his meals.” Rubbing his nose, Cu growled at the sharp pain that came from it. “Keep him chained, and if he has any rebellious streak I’ll let you deal with it. Just make sure I won’t need to call for a healer.”

With a nod, the minotaur moved to stand, but Cu halted him. “Send her in.”

Acknowledging the command, Rainer left, and Cu was left alone with his thoughts for a moment, considering what bright future lay ahead. With this new source of revenue, he was sure he would be able to wiggle his way into being one of the stronger artifact supplied for the Goldfield’s personal army… many lucrative prospects were in the horizon.

“You called, Master?” The melodious strained voice of the slave asked as the door clicked shut behind her.

He stood and motioned for her to follow. “Yes, you will share bed with me tonight.”

With a practiced emotionless expression, the woman flicked her blond hair behind her ear and bowed her head at him. “As you wish, Master.” She proclaimed, slowly moving to remove the rags that adorned her pale slender dwarfish body.

Cu grinned at himself, many prospects indeed.


	3. House Slave

###  **_**

###  **-Rainer**

The young minotaur entered the dungeon holding a small pot with water on one hand and a torch on another. His thoughts were in the task at hand, the new slave had not had a gram of food since he’d been brought here, and he’d received water on the third day of magic infusion. The minotaur had heard him complaining and muttering in that odd language of his, but he was sure that after a whole day with neither food nor water and locked up in the tiny cell, the slave would not be in any state to properly fight back.

Not that it really mattered, Rainer had quickly found out the slave didn’t pose a physical threat.

Still, he wouldn’t lower his guard around the slave, Master Cu may have dismissed the odd clothes the now-slave had been wearing, but in Rainer’s eyes they were proof there could be a nasty surprise or two hiding to jump out at any moment. The materials and quality of the clothes were seen as some odd foreign oddity in the Master’s eyes, but to Rainer, they were signs of someone of high status.

Slaves that were once close to nobility in one form or another needed to be broken more thoroughly, for unlike when people with nothing to lose were enslaved, these people had enough false hope that they’d actively seek freedom from the very moment the chains were placed around their necks.

Peeking into the cell, he spotted the slave leaning against the door. There was a definite stench of piss and shit emanating from within. It made sense the Master desired the slave to be clean before he set foot on the house… Rainer mentally told himself he would have the slave clean the cell after lunch was made.

“Wake up.” Rainer kicked the door to startle the slave into wakefulness.

“Fuk ou.” The words came from the other side, weak, raspy, and quickly followed by intense coughing.

He opened the door, and used the chain to drag the poor excuse of a person that was inside away from the filth. Rainer stopped once it was clear the slave wasn’t even walking, and only once the human had raised his gaze at him did he lightly shake the pot to show the water within.

“Wahtu.” The slave muttered in a raspy tone, his eyes drifting from the pot to Rainer, and then narrowing into a sunken-eyed frown. “Fuk ou.”

The minotaur frowned back, having expected the human to have started begging for the drink in his language. Well, he couldn’t be sure if anything he’d said was asking to be able to drink from the pot, but the tone and expression revealed animosity and not submission.

Were it in Rainer’s hands, he would send him back into the cell for another day. But Master Cu had given his orders.

With one hand on the chain that bound the human’s wrists, he used the other to lower the pot. “Drink.”

He didn’t need have given the order, the human barely paid him any mind as he reached the pot and tilted it to drink, coughing and sputtering and coughing some more in his desperation to get as much as possible down his throat. Rainer let him for about a minute and then yanked him away from it by grasping at his hair. The human screamed and struggled but to no avail, the pot was forcefully removed from his grasp.

“That’s enough.” Rainer growled, ignoring the pot and now dragging the human by both chains and hair. The slave began to struggle far harder the moment he thought Rainer was going to take him towards the altar again.

One particular desperate kick managed to hit against the back of his right thigh, sending the minotaur down to his knees in a cry of agony at the impact and loss of balance. Instantly the slave was running towards the stairs that led towards the mansion, ignoring the minotaur entirely.

Unfortunately for him, Rainer had no intention of letting him. He had never let go of the chain, so it took him a single powerful yank to cause the slave to scream and stumble to the floor. “Think you can run away?” Rainer snarled, pulling at the chain to drag the still kicking slave back towards him. “I’ll teach you that’s no longer an option for you.”

The moment the slave was within hand’s reach, Rainer pulled out the short leather club from his belt. That made the human’s eyes open wide. “Uait! Uait!” He raised both hands and ducked his head submissively in an attempt to defuse the incoming violence.

It was for naught, the minotaur paying no mind to his pleas as he raised the non-lethal weapon and began to rain down one hit after the other, aiming for the human’s arms and back mercilessly, chaining one attack after the other until the human had curled into a ball and was focusing on trying to endure as best as he could.

Feeling himself slightly short of breath, Rainer stood up straight, taking a moment to assess whether or not he’d overdone it. The slave was shaking, and the markings of bruises were starting to show, but he was breathing. So that meant he could still function.

The minotaur yanked at the chain to force him back on his feet before pulling him along towards the only other way out of the basement. The human followed with shaking weak legs, barely keeping the pace though his eyes warily stuck on the metal door that lead to the altar.

Inwardly, Rainer knew the proper thing he should do right now was to drag the slave back to the cell and leave him there for another day or two without water, but Master Cu had been insisting and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Move it, slave, you’ve work to do.” He yanked the chain to force the human to move faster, moving past the door and continuing towards the second set of stairs in the basement. These ones, after opening a heavily locked door, lead towards the stables.

There Rainer saw the female dwarf Master Cu had a penchant for. Her golden hair always managed to draw the minotaur’s attention, it was the lone feature he’d admit to finding pretty on the too-short-and-stocky woman. She stood next to one of the short-horses, brushing it with soft care as she whispered at it.

A wry chuckle escaped the human, followed by a cough and a laugh. “Pohnee?” He said, drawing her attention.

“Shut up.” Rainer backhanded him hard enough to knock him to the ground, then turned to her. “The master wants him clean before he starts working at the kitchen.”

“And why should I be the one cleaning him?” The dwarf half-glared at him, ignoring the groan from the new slave as she flicked a lock of golden hair behind her ear. “He looks half dead, I’d rather not be the one to be next to the corpse when Master calls for him.”

“And I’d rather be the one standing next to the door before he tries running again.” Rainer replied coarsely, using the padlock to lock the chain against one of the metal rings on the stable walls. He didn’t wait for her to refuse or complain as he walked to stand next to the only doorway that lead to the outside. Crossing his arms, he levelled a glare at the slave.

She snorted loudly and shook her head. “Come here Sugar, I’ll go back to brushing you in a bit.” She whispered at the black short-horse mare, pulling her into one of the pens and closing. Her brown eyes shifted towards the minotaur and his standoffish attitude before switching towards the slave. The grimace in her face showed the distaste of the beating… or was it perhaps that she had heard the screams of the previous days?

Rainer knew the others wanted to know what it was that was being done to the human, for fear it may happen to them if they missbehaved, but Master Cu had instructed on remaining tight-lipped about the altar, and as such Rainer had not revealed what happened in the basement.

The new slave stood on shaky legs, looking down at the dwarf with a levelled even gaze that shifted between her and the minotaur at the barn’s door… and the metal door they’d come through that lead to the basement. There was something in the way he glanced at her that seemed off, like someone trying to determine if they had seen you before or not.

She ignored the look, walking over to the well and pulling out a bucket full of water. The dwarvish blonde woman wobbled towards the human and placed the bucket within his reach, adding a cloth rag. “All yours.” She made a vague gesture at him.

“He doesn’t understand Common.” Rainer spoke from the barn entrance as the human seemed to hesitate. “Whatever it is that he speaks, Master hasn’t heard the language before.”

“Oh, fantastic.” She grumbled even as she watched the human raise the bucket to drink some of it in a hurried fashion, drenching himself with the spilt liquid in his rush to drink as much of it as he could.

“Hey! Stop!” Rainer had immediately rushed forward.

Arwen did not fight back nor attempt to use the bucket as a weapon, instead all too focused on gulping down more water before it was yanked from his hands. The gesture was immediately followed by Rainer savagely punching the human and dropping him to the ground. Cries escaped the penned animals and soon the agitation became a cacophony of braying sounds that forced the dwarven woman to attempt calming down rather than pay any attention at the beating that the slave was receiving through Rainer’s kicks.

Once things calmed back down, she dutifully picked the bucket and went to fill it back up, coming back and halting next to the curled up human that was silently groaning as he tenderly held his ribs. Rainer had been holding back, a lot, he’d wanted to break a bone or two for the transgression but Master Cu’s orders refrained him from doing so. The slave was worthless if it couldn’t perform his given task at the best of his ability, and Master Cu would be infuriated if said results were anything less than the best.

“If you keep this up, he won’t survive the day.” The dwarf spoke in a hushed voice as she picked the rag.

“Master is in a hurry to use him, the slave will learn his lesson one way or another.” Though he said this, there was something about his face that clearly showed there was something else troubling his thoughts. “Clean him yourself before he does anything else that’s stupid.”

She nodded and waited for him to return to the barn entrance before letting out a heavy sigh. Turning towards the human, Rainer noticed the odd look the human was giving her had shifted to one of intense focus, brows practically knit together in focus even while he held himself in a ball to reduce the pain.

“Don’t look at me like that, I wasn’t the one who put the chains on you.” She snapped at him reproachfully.

The human didn’t respond, remaining still while watching her very carefully, there was something about that look Rainer did not like, it was too intense.

“Blaire.” The human had whispered her name, and the hairs on the back of Rainer’s neck stood on end.

Instantly he knew why. No one had said the dwarf’s name throughout their interactions. There was no way he should have known it, let alone that it related to the blond haired dwarf. Rainer felt a sense of wrongness in the pit of his stomach.

He should have gone to tell Master Cu about this but paused, what would he say? That the human had, somehow, learnt Blaire’s name? That gave him enough pause to growl, he would have to come to the Master with something more consistent if he wanted to make sure he’d be taken seriously.

Rainer’s eyes narrowed while he continued to watch the human as he was cleaned.

###  **_**

###  **-Arwen**

Having gone through the… not very comfortable… act of getting washed through a wet rag, I felt at least marginally cleaner and definitely less stinky. But it was neither of those that had greatly swelled my mood sky high. No, the reason I was feeling far better than everything my body was telling me I should feel, was because I’d found Blaire.

I mean, it had taken me getting a closer look at her after quenching my thirst to have the idea click in my head, but now I was certain. A character I had known quite well. After all, she had been the one of the more active and notorious participants during the slave revolt arc of the story and ended up joining Hero Lucas’ cliqué when he’d gone to investigate the origins of demons.

Blaire, a female dwarf who possessed a hair blessed by the dwarvish Goddesses of sunshine and moonlight, whose attitude as a rebel slave was ruthless and vicious to the point it made any who faced against the roofians under her control to surrender rather than face her wrath. Blaire, a former love slave to a lasciviously opulent merchant of enchanted artifacts, who had decided to run away the day she found out she was pregnant, all too aware the merchant would kill the child the instant it was born.

Sure, I hadn’t given too much detail to this “Opulent merchant” that had owned her in my notes besides the fact that he’d been stinking rich, the son of disgraced dwarven nobility, and cruel enough to have hired thugs to “deal” with Blaire after her escape… no, it didn’t matter, not that much.

What mattered was that I knew Blaire like the back of my hand, the same way I knew everything about all the main characters I’d written. Their little secrets, their flaws, their personality traits. I knew them all because I had poured over them for hours upon hours. My little great obsession, adding as many details as I could think up to ensure they were as ‘real’ as my skill-level allowed me to make them.

It was with this confidence that I knew what was going through Blaire’s head. I knew that right now the actually lesbian female dwarf was passively restraining her disgust and hatred for how her “Master” treated her purely out of the assumption there was no worth in attempting escape and the self-delusion that her life could surely go to worse if she managed to leave. I knew that becoming pregnant would lead to her reevaluating that. And I knew that the thug’s attack that would result in her miscarriage would turn her into someone that would terrorize Frostshield to the bone.

She would, in time, become a fearsome woman who, as her peak achievement, would spark the slave revolution by leading the slaves in Berton to wreck the fortified coastal city from the inside out.

And I was meeting her now, when she was at her most ‘docile’, right before the spark was ignited.

I felt like meeting Napoleon when he was but a little child barely having learnt how to walk.

My thoughts were interrupted as the minotaur came back looking stern and pissed off. It was at this point that I had decided to stop my attempts at antagonizing him. Actually, I even smiled at the guy with a very honest grin. And it not only instantly startled him, it unnerved him.

I loved it. Oh god did I love it, specially the rushed and spoke agitated words exchanged with Blaire heavy with inquisitive tones. And that was because he didn’t know what I knew. He didn’t know I now had a handhold in my situation. I kept from laughing, but the urge was certainly there.

It’s such a shame I didn’t know a freaking word of their language, this was now tearing me from the inside far more than the beating I’d received. I lamented my inability to communicate while he led me back into the dungeon and out through the passageway that led into the house. Or would calling it a manor be more fitting? I shrugged and just followed him as he pulled the chain.

Sure, I was limping, in pain, bruised, in pain, and very much hurting in pain all over. In pain. Oh, and my hands were trembling and slightly numb. But this was the first damn ray of light I’d seen since being locked up and tortured and I was not going to let it go.

“Why thank you.” I told him with a cheery tone once brought into the kitchen area. He looked at me with a hastily forced impassive face and I returned the gaze with a sunny smile that maybe didn’t hide my smugness all too well.

A snarl escaped his lips immediately after and I was struck by a vicious backhand that knocked me on my ass. The impact made everything in my body flare up in pain and I groaned, shaking from the flayed nerves and bruised… everything. Everything god damn hurt. Agh I wanted to scream but by now my throat was too sore for that. I just endured there, curled up taking shaky breaths and trying my best to find a way to reduce the ouch and calm down.

The minotaur stood there, watching as I heaved to calm myself down, and then, slowly, with shaking legs, I stood up. My knees wobble and almost gave out, but I endured, using the table to straighten myself. My eyes met his.

And I wordlessly smiled again, bowing my head at him as I remained still. The lack of rebellion didn’t bother me anymore. He couldn’t get to me. I had found the single most powerful reminder that my freedom was only a matter of when, not if.

He hesitated, taking a slight step back in shock as I raised my head and looked at him in the eyes once more, my lips curled upwards.

The minotaur snarled and said something my ringing ears didn’t quite catch, and then he tied the end of the chains to the kitchen wall near the fireplace before leaving, clearly perturbed.

I’d gotten to him.

That only made my smile widen further.

With him gone, I changed my focus to look around.

It was a big kitchen, the table was larger than my cell by at least twice as much, there were no stoves but rather one large chimney with a fireplace, and there were copper or black pots and pans hanging practically everywhere. Which sort of left me wondering where all the ingredients were. One of the doors was probably a pantry.

I was going to seek escape from this place, now I had little doubt about the fact, I would only have to pay attention and find the opportunity when it came knocking. Maybe I would even manage to convince Blaire to follow along, maybe, but I wasn’t going to consider it likely at least until I’d learnt to talk in Common.

There was also the fact that “The other Author” might have changed something about her that I wasn’t aware of. If she had, then my confidence on being able to anticipate how Blaire would react to a situation was vastly reduced. I sighed heavily. Mr Coauthor had clearly tweaked some things, but just how much? Also, had he decided to send me into the main plot of the story? Towards a parallel universe where it never happened? Or perhaps he chose to send me so far back in time that the main events wouldn’t come for a long while?

Those points were important to determine, the more I knew about “When” exactly in my original narrative I was then the closer my approximations would be to reality. Question was, how would I determine this? I needed information.

And for information… I needed to learn the language.

I grimaced while turning to the next item in my agenda: How to ensure my escape.

Chains aside, it was clear there were two large obstacles to getting out. Cu, and the minotaur. A dark thought crept into my head and I nodded at myself in acknowledgement to it. Right now escape was more important than revenge.

Though there were strong hopes one could help the other.

###  **_**

###  **-Yselda**

“You are going to teach him to cook, and you’re going to teach him how to speak common.” Rainer instructed as he lead her towards the kitchen, there was a nervousness about him she had not seen before. “You will only be responsible for cooking the Master’s meals from now on.”

“I see, I am glad.” She nodded at the young minotaur with a slightly relieved smile. “Having some help in the kitchen will do some good to my shoulders.”

“Yselda.” He grasped her hand before she could step further, looking into her eyes with a hint of worry. “If he does anything, anything at all that seems suspicious, tell me right away.”

The woman leaned into his touch. “You worry too much.” She said as she kissed his cheek sweetly. “I will have him cook some gruel, that way the most dangerous thing he’ll have a hold of will be a wooden spoon.”

Rainer nodded and relaxed, but only marginally. “I have to go to the city to make some purchases for Master…”

“If anything happens I know the Master will be in his study, and we both know that from there he’d be able to hear me scream.” She replied with a wink.

Rainer’s cheeks turned a shade pinker and he abruptly avoided her gaze. “Yes, I… know that lesson well.”

“Do not worry about me.” She reiterated, swatting at his shoulder. “He’s chained up and I’m no defenceless maiden.”

“That you are not.” He replied with a short laugh, relaxing slightly at her reassurance.

“Now shoo, go already or we’ll have starved before you get back.”

He nodded. “I will hurry.”

“I know you will.”

She waved at him to go, not turning towards the kitchen until she heard the main door closing. Then, she sighed, taking a moment to recompose herself. With a determined nod, she headed towards the kitchen, ready to meet this new addition to their family. She was certain that though right now the human was rebellious, if shown that life here could be better than out starving in the streets, then he’d would surely become a great asset for Master. Just how she had shown Rainer that being slaves was not dishonourable.

Nodding with enthusiasm, she combed her hair with her fingers, adjusted the simple brown tunic she wore and opened the door.

As soon as she saw the young man she grimaced in sympathetic pain. He had dark rings under his eyes, his face pale, and the hair on his head matted into an oily messy mop. His arms, neck, and shoulders were sporting deepening purple and blue marks of a beating, and his split lip, though no longer bleeding, was slightly swollen. Yselda had also quickly noticed that the human wasn’t thin, which she thought was a good point since otherwise his cheeks would’ve likely been caved in. Actually, after a moment consideration that drew her attention, the young man seemed to have only undergone a handful of days of malnourishment, but otherwise he seemed slightly plump. Or perhaps was it swelling from half of him being black and blue?

Her eyes travelled to the human’s hands as she got closer without him having caught on to her presence while he was distractedly handling one of the pans. It soon became easy to spot the fact that his palms were smooth and unmarred, long slender fingers that had neither calluses of labor nor scars of effort.

At that thought her gut stirred. This was not the malnourished street-rat whose life would be improved by leaps and bounds through their service to Master Cu.

This man had all the signs of having lived a luxurious comfortable life, perhaps he’d been in the service of a noble! Panic fluttered in her gut at the memory of the previous household she’d served in. The happy welcoming smile she’d put up shifted into cautious observation. “Hello.” She greeted, looking at his reactions closely and attempting to heed Rainer’s warning of seeking out odd behaviour.

The human jumped in surprise and dropped the pan, a yelp followed from having moved quickly when he was clearly not in a condition to do so.

He spoke, but just how Rainer had told her, the language was completely alien to her ears. She frowned, not able to recognize it. She had travelled plenty back when she was a young calf all the way even into her adulthood, but for the life of her his words did not appear similar to any of the myriad of languages and dialects she’d stumbled upon.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand you.” She spoke softly, gently, bowing her head in an appeasing gesture, glancing at the chains that tied him to the kitchen wall. Judging by how much leeway Rainer had given the human, he could only remain around the fire and little else.

Good, no access to knives or other pointy objects, only the pans and pots.

“My name is Yselda.” She bowed a second time, pointing her palms at herself. “Yselda.” She repeated slowly, and then switched to point the palms at him. Strangely enough, as she did this, she felt slightly self-conscious, her hands were worn and battered, fingers bent where they’d once broken, scars and calluses of hard labour clear to see. But she restrained the impulse to pull them away. “And you are?”

The man appeared to have picked up on her intention, his face lighting up with a genuine smile. “Arwen.” He said, imitating her initial gesture, and then pointing his palms towards her. “Yselda?”

The female minotaur held back from reaching to touch his hands, instead returning the smile and nodding. Good, it seemed at least the weird language was indeed a foreign tongue and not the result from having been hit in the head or somesuch. She was also quite glad at his body-language, the young man did not appear tense or angry, rather, he looked quite relaxed and content.

“We are going to cook.” Yselda continued her explanation, picking up the dropped pan and putting it back in its place. “I will be teaching you.” She knew he wouldn’t understand, but that would only be a matter of time. “This is a pan.” She pointed at the named object. “Pan.”

“Pan.” He repeated with a nod.

“And this is a pot.” She said. “Pot.”

“Pot.” He replied, then pointed at himself with his hands. “This is a Arwen.”

Oh! He was smart. Yselda laughed lightly and shook his head. “I am Yselda.” She declared. “And you are?”

“I am Arwen.” He nodded his head, and stuck his tongue at her after a moment of doubt. “And you are?”

“I am Yselda.” She nodded in response.

There was a pause as Arwen glanced at her, appearing to be considering something. Then he bowed, placing his thumbs against opposite shoulders and spreading his elbows wide. Yselda had to blink as she saw the gesture; it was a traditional from the homeland of the Beast-Kin, Ingelnay, and it was a show of deep respect, one reserved for when greeting an venerable teacher.

“Yselda.” He said and then raised his head with a smile that grew the moment he’d noticed her shock.

How had he come to learn of this gesture? she wondered. The spark of curiosity ignited as she now really wanted to teach him Common quickly. She was starting to have a great deal of questions she wanted to ask him.

 

###  **_**

###  **-Arwen**

It turns out that cooking gruel is about as fun as watching paint dry.

One long wooden spoon. One pot. Milk. Water. Oatmeal. And fire. Then stir. Stir. Stir.

And slowly stir some more.

I knew what I was cooking was probably going to be the best potential meal for me in terms of what food I was going to be permitted to munch on, which was also disheartening in its own way. Doubly so when I could smell and practically taste the meat and cheese Yselda was preparing in one of the pans.

Frankly speaking, I was increasingly willing to burn my fingers just to get the chance to steal a bite from that food. A part of me was pretty sure that I could dip my hand into boiling oil and it would still hurt less than that damn recharge-altar.

Better put those dangerous thoughts away, I definitely did not want to get myself hurt like that.

On the plus side, Yselda had seen the hunger burning in my eyes and gave me an apple with a rather apologetic expression. She’d said something while pointing at the pan that probably meant ‘For the fucking midget that has you chained to the wall’, but my interpretation could be wrong.

Speaking of, Yselda was the best thing to happen since coming to this place besides Blaire. The minotaur woman appeared to be at least a decade older than me, and considering how she’d recognized the Beast-Kin pupil salute, I could take a guess that she was not originally born in human territory. Also, was friendly, sympathetic, and it was very easy to make her laugh which made me feel less like I’d been stuck into a variation of hell.

I repeated the word in human-common, which was pronounced. “Gudure.” In Freedom-Speech.

There appeared to be something fucky with the verbs of Human-Common, I hadn’t quite pinned it down, but I had the impression there were more conjugations than in English… was it perhaps distantly related to Spanish? I didn’t know, but I hoped not.

Because if I had learned one thing from taking Spanish classes, it was this: **Fuck the three thousand Spanish verb tenses and whoever came up with them.**

I shuddered at the potential nightmare I had little option but to walk into.

“Faren.” Yselda spoke as she pointed at the apple seeds, or was it the core?

“Faren.” I said as I plucked the seed and showed it to her to confirm, she nodded. Guess ‘Faren’ meant seed… or specifically apple seed? For now I’ll consider it to apply to seeds in general.

Wait. I frowned slightly as I looked at the apple seed. There was nothing odd about it, mind you, but there was something in the back of my mind, a vague thought, an idea, or rather, a little tidbit of information… what was it…

Oh, right, what wannabe writer didn’t know about amygdalin and it’s good ol friend cyanide?

The frown deepened while I glanced around the kitchen, and then a defeated sigh escaped me. I didn’t have the specific know-how to get a cyanide concentrate from the seeds, but even then, I was sure it needed some items currently definitely unavailable to me. Like pure ethanol.

“Arwen?” Yselda had spoken when it seemed I’d lost my train of thought.

I shook my head, keeping the seed even though I wasn’t too sure whether I’d get to do much with it. “No, it’s nothing.” I said softly, raising my hand in an appeasing gesture before sighing and going back to stirring the pot of gruel.

Man, for an instant there I’d been looking forward to seeing that dwarf bastard writhing on the floor choking on his own puke as his face turned blue.

Maybe another time.

Currently, it seemed my best bet was just hitting the road at the first chance I had… that’ll probably change once I get the opportunity to communicate with Blaire and convince her to help me.

Maybe.

I was hoping that I could manage to escape sooner though, I was certain Cu would forcefully extract my mana as often as he could manage without it risking my health too seriously. But at the same time, I was quite certain that someone could have their mana forced out of them only so many times before consequences started to happen.


	4. Dragon Watching

> AN: Sorry about earlier, had accidentally re-posted chapter 2

__  


### **_**

###  **-Arwen**

It was the rumbling of the ground beneath me that woke me up.

Something primal in the back of my brain had screamed at me to open my eyes and be alert, my mind was startled into consciousness without me being cognitive enough to make sense of what was going on. I just blinked awake in the darkness, tense, and waiting for something to happen.

There was something in the air, an ethereal oppressive quality to it. The hairs on my arms were standing on end and I could barely catch a faint background buzzing sound. It was like the very world was poised and ready to strike.

**KRAKABOOOM**

Another tremor coursed through the ground, the sound felt like it had been near but it was impossible to determine down here, it was absolute darkness down here, not even a flash of light. I was feeling increasingly confused. Was there a storm outside? The whole day had had clear skies.

A little voice in the back of my head was telling me it wasn’t thunder.

The one being locked up on the other slave-cell was shouting something about “Sky” and something that sounded similar to “Down”, I didn’t know enough common to really understand more. Was he saying the sky was falling? I didn’t really know either. What could be…

**BOOM**

This time I was certain it had not been thunder, it had been an explosion. Dust fell from the shitty cell’s ceiling and I was becoming increasingly re-familiarized with the fact that it was small and cramped and it was underground, basically making it into a marginally oversized coffin waiting for burial.

Welp. If there was a time for panic, this seemed like the best one.

“FIRE!” I screamed in Common at the top of my lungs. I wrangled my fingers around the metal bars and shook the door as best I could. “FIRE!” I refused to die buried underground inside a shitty cell. “FIRE!”

My compatriot seemed to have come to the same conclusion in regards to getting buried alive and was now screaming alongside me while the both of us were doing everything we could to out-volume the apocalypse that was happening outside. “FIRE!”

Only after a small everlasting eternity did the underground door open and Rainer stepped into view. God, it even felt good to see his ugly mug. The relief that washed through me was such I could’ve kissed him.

That particular emotion was summarily executed the instant afterwards as I quickly noted he was not carrying the leather club, instead had a sword on his hip. The look on the minotaur’s face was grave as he made sure I could see his weapon, the message clear: if I tried anything, the attempt would not result in a beating but in my death.

The torchlight flickered, casting shadows against every surface, leaving half of Rainer’s face illuminated and the other half hidden. “Follow.” He ordered harshly, yanking at my chain and I complied without resistance.

“FIRE!” The other slave was shouting as he held himself to the bars in a desperate attempt to get released.

Rainer turned to the slave and said something I didn’t know, then stared back to me. “Follow.” He reiterated.

My eyes turned towards the occupied cell, at the yellow panicked desperate eyes of the man trapped inside, a lump formed on my throat as I tried to think about what to do. Should I fight and try to beat Rainer and then try to escape? Fuck, I didn’t even know the word for ‘Wait’.

I didn’t get a chance to decide, my chain was yanked. “Follow!” Rainer growled as he rushed me out through the door that led to the stables. There I saw Blaire hastily moving from one pen to the next trying to calm down the slightly large ponies (or slightly small horses?) and gearing them up.

She and Rainer shared a few words, and then I had my chains bound to a metal ring on the stable’s door. Rainer did not waste a moment to rush back down towards the manor’s basement.

**BOOM**

The explosion was closer, the shudder being felt through my soles. Blaire hurried her work and I was left looking at the open stable doors and the small yard in front that was bordered by a hip-height stone wall (stone fence?), but over the wall? I could see the shadows of a city in the distance, silhouettes flickering under the flames that danced on the houses.

I couldn’t stop myself, I moved closer to the stable doors until my chain went taut and left me just underneath the frame. I stared with wide eyes at the burning city. Then, a light appeared from above it, bright like a flash of lightning, but it wasn’t extinguishing. Instead, the light grew brighter, redder, hotter. Then, it shot down.

The flash of the explosion happened, and the sound came only a handful of seconds or so later, as if both had not occurred at the same time.

**BOOM**

The world shook as something came down from where the light had originated. A shadow larger than the houses, one that landed on the blazing rooftops unafraid of the flames. Its scales shone brightly under the flickering red and yellow lights underneath, its claws tore into the wood and stone structure as if it was wet clay, its tail whipped and destroyed a building like it was nothing.

My chain was loosened and I took a step out of the barn, but my brain didn’t register it, I was too focused on the sight unfolding before me. The creature opened its fang-filled maw, and hell spewed forth, a jet of incinerating fury rushing through the air in a burst of light and heat that set ablaze everything it touched.

I stood there in stunned awe at the massive creature, at the beautifully deadly monster wrecking the city with a mighty roar.

The dragon was here, in all its magnificent glory.

The movies got it wrong. They got it so wrong.

There was nothing that could have ever properly conveyed the sheer awe such a creature inspired. It left me rooted on the spot, unable to look away.

###  **_**

###  **-Cu Krittie**

Calamity. There was no other name for it.

Cu was desperately gathering all the most precious items he could dump into a sack from his office and personal room. Deeds, contracts, even a couple of enchanted artefacts came along and were added to the sack. The dwarf was desperately rushing left and right and struggling every second considering whether wasting another moment to grab one item or another would be worth the increasing risk of the dragon moving its rampage in the direction of his estate.

**BOOM**

He paused long enough to look out the window and towards the burning city of Hightower, the flames flickering in the darkness as the beast continued in its rampage. Cu shuddered at the sight of the dragon, the monster was a calamity, a sure sign of ruin both present and future.

Hightower’s fate was sealed, even if it survived, it would not continue being somewhere Cu could easily gain profit.

Just how had the creature appeared in the capital city? Such a thing would have been spotted months in advance, rumors, whispers, sightings! A dragon was not something to be missed or ignored, all the kingdoms knew well to keep a track of any dragons near its borders. So how had this one managed to reach the very heart of Frostshield without anyone having been any the wiser?

Cu screamed inwardly and renewed his effort to gather as many valuables as he could as quickly as possible.

The dragon’s roar shook the windows and Cu flinched as he turned to look outside once more to confirm the calamity was not headed his way. Once sure the scaly beast was keeping its rampage in place for the time being, he had been just about to turn and continue his gathering of indispensable objects when something caught his attention at the corner of his eye.

The human was standing in the yard, completely still, paralyzed as it looked at the dragon with wide eyes.

And yet, Cu noticed something off.

The human was smiling.

###  **_**

###  **-Arwen**

In the world I had created, dragons were a special sort of existence, creatures that had not been created by whimsical gods but instead had survived and evolved throughout the whole of creation, adapting to the magic and integrating it into their very being. And in the same way that the mitochondria became the powerhouse of the cell, magic became as much an integral part to dragons as their DNA.

It was because of this there were certain qualities that were granted to them that other creatures did not have.

Such as “perfect casting”.

The magic system of this world was… complicated, it worked sort of like electromagnetism. Where in one you could get an electromagnet if you spun electrons around in a coil, with magic, if you moved the mana a specific pattern it would create fire. Or ice, or water, or whatever else. It was complicated and it had this thing where everyone thought the patterns were in two dimensions but in reality, the “perfect” patterns to move the mana around were in three dimensions and so the two-dimensional versions were greatly sub-par and… well, there was a whole pamphlet worth of words in a google drive doc somewhere in the internet explaining the thing.

The thing was that, because magic had been part of their evolution for millions of years, dragon had these “3d” patterns inside them, allowing them to cast magic with almost perfect efficiency in terms of mana consumption… whereas humans, in general, had somewhere around… 10% to 20%? Whatever, not the point, the important thing was that dragons had the equivalent of a 3d printed magical circuit-board inside them.

What was currently making me stand deep in thought was that these “Circuit boards” were unique to the individual, and there was a way to “shake” them remotely. Sort of like giving someone a slap to the back of their head.

For dragons though, they commonly called this “shake” as someone calling for their “True name”. They could intuitively sense the direction and distance to whoever had “Rung their bell”, and if they were capable enough, they could even catch the mana-signature of the caller.

The gist of it was that I spent three months and thousands of words and research devising ways to make magic more than “draw a circle in air cast fireball” just so I could allow dragons to have the equivalent of a Facebook “Arwen has poked you” function.

Totally. Worth. Every. Second.

Doubly now that I was in this situation where I knew the true-names of several important dragons… and some less important too.

All of which brought me back to the current unfolding situation. I knew the magical name of this particular dragon, though I was hesitating whether or not it would be a good idea to call her. After all, as curious as she may be about how I had come to learn her magical name, right now she was going in a rampage after having been finally released from her imprisonment under the cathedral of the Church of Swords.

This whole calamity had been started because a particular demon had managed to accidentally find a passage to the secret underground area under the cathedral and had released Rëa. The reason why she was locked down there was a whole conspiracy of its own regarding how the church was forcefully extracting the dragon’s power to “give blessings” to heroes to effectively have a way to ensure their own Holy warriors were above average.

This whole event was meant to be the prelude to the powers-that-be to decide to gather their best summoners and bring forth the prophesied Hero of legend into this world.

Rëa was supposed to keep the rampage going for about a month, going from one city to the next and massacrating thousands as she made her way towards the lair she inhabited once-upon-a-time several hundred years ago… the last location her mate had been at, Thruum.

As I kept pondering whether it would be a good idea or not to call the dragon’s name, I was forced to start considering the ramifications besides whether or not she’d kill me on sight. Without Rëa going on her extended rampage, Frostshield would be in a far more stable position and the slave-revolt that would surge some years down the road would get stomped instantly.

My situation right now might not be ideal, but if I wanted to have a definite prospect to live long enough to find a way back to my world, then all-out war against the demons had to be avoided. The slave-revolt needed to happen successfully as it would greatly deplete resources with the in-fighting and leave everyone in a more vulnerable state, which would make it unlikely they’d gather enough forces to attack the demons head-on.

So no, I couldn’t distract the white dragon from her rampage.

But now that I’d pondered on it, if the rampage was bigger then the slave-revolts would have a likelier chance to occur sooner. I mean, if it went well it could shorten the time the Hero would have to grow up, but I was pretty damn sure that if I had the time to prepare I could help him avoid some of the pitfalls.

The sooner Hero got to the “Everyone must coexist peacefully” part, then the sooner the kingdoms would want to get rid of him and clump their summoning specialists together to research into the matter and come up with a “Send me home” spell.

I racked my brain as I searched the magical name of Rëa’s mate. It was… in Tolkien elvish, something about fire and heaven? Hm… oh. “Réd-o fierui skui.” God I hoped I got the pronunciation right, not that I’d know for sure. Here was hoping he’d use some far-gazing spell or something and spot Rëa and get a move on to join up with the mate he’d thought had died so long ago.

With this in mind, it then came as a surprise when I felt… something… being perturbed in my mind. A presence was making itself clear and my thoughts were being rattled as this something was quickly growing in the corner of my mind. It felt like someone was lowering a boulder on my shoulders, even though my body felt nothing at all and the sensation was purely mental.

Panic blossomed, I couldn’t move, and the act of thinking was becoming burdensome under the overwhelming weight of the presence that had invaded my thoughts.

' _Who are you._ ' The voice rumbled through my thoughts like cracking flames searing a forest to ash, it was an overwhelming presence that didn’t ask, it demanded my answer. My knees were shaking from the sudden sensation overwhelming weakness.

' _Rëa is free._ ' Lying was a possibility when speaking through thoughts, but I did not dare to try for I was quite sure I’d fail and die. So I decided to just give the message and pray he’d leave.

If it was possible for a meteorite to ‘seem’ startled, then that was the impression I received through the mental touch of the dragon. It was just that overwhelming that I couldn’t properly visualize his presence as anything other than an uncaring fiery doom falling down on me.

The next instant the connection was cut off and I fell to my knees, drenched in sweat and panting, fear coming out of me in waves and the air in my lungs burning as my body had been just about ready to break into a dead spring.

I had not expected Thruum to have cast a spell to connect to my mind like that. I’d completely forgotten that there were spells that allowed you to telepathically connect to someone so long as you had a general sense of their mana-signature and location… and it made a scary amount of sense that a dragon would know such a spell.

Shit that had been dangerous, I had no protection against anything. He could’ve turned my brain into a flesh smoothie with a whim.

I shuddered at the thought. Yeah, no, no more wanting to meet face-to-face with a dragon unless I was absolutely certain they weren’t going to squish my puny existence into thin red paste.

“Arwen?” A hand touched my shoulder, still shuddering, I turned to see Yselda with a reassuring smile. “Move, order, follow.” She spoke the few words that could convey the situation. Then paused, kneeling down and hugging me. “Orowi.” She muttered.

I froze, wondering where this had come from. Was she trying to reassure me? I didn’t push her away and just remained there, very very still, but feeling she was accomplishing her task as the fear in my chest was slowly ebbing out.

“Orowi .” I spoke the word in an attempt to ask her to give me a further idea as to its meaning.

Yselda grimaced while standing back up, so it was one of those words that couldn’t be easily conveyed. Looking around, she grasped the spear that had been tied up to the back of one of the horses. She pointed the tip at me. “Argru.” She said, pointing at me. Then she turned around to face the other way, with one hand, she thrust the spear towards what seemed like an invisible enemy with practiced ease while her free hand kept its palm pointed at me. “Orowi.”

I was pretty sure ‘Argru’ meant to be in danger… so ‘Orowi’ meant to be protected? I nodded softly since it didn’t look like we were in a situation where it could be further explained through our crude means of communication.

The horned woman returned the nod eagerly, smacking her fist against her chest with a solid thumping sound. “Orowi.”

She turned to continue carrying out her orders and I was left to ponder once more. Paying attention to the happenings around me once more, I realized that Blaire’s work had been in preparation of an evacuation of the place. A wagon had been brought and filled out with many boxes and sacks, Cu appeared to be fretting over the thing as Blaire was tying the horses to pull it. Rainer for his part was nowhere to be seen, but I did spot the man with the yellow eyes standing behind the cart with his wrists chained to it.

At first I thought he was human, but when I noted the anime-protagonist orange hair and slightly pointy ears, I changed that estimate into him being a half-elf. He was dressed with the same state of the art latest fashion of “Burlap sack” I currently wore, and looked rather miserable with sunken cheeks and darkened eyes along with what were clearly signs of malnourishment.

Cu shouted some words, and Yselda came back to grab the chain that held my wrists and tug at it to prompt me to follow along. “Follow.” She said simply. The chain was tied next to the half-elf’s, so that meant I was going to have to remain walking behind the wagon. Great.

“My name is Arwen.” I intoned dejectedly once the padlock was locked.

The half-elf looked at me and gave a half-nod. “My name is Uryuc.” He then said something else, to which I could only shake my head.

“I do not understand.” My words came with a dissatisfied grunt.

That simple phrase had taken an hour to properly convey the need for me knowing such a phrase to Yselda, who then had given me like five variants. I settled on the shortest one since I did not have a clue as to what the different ‘I don’t know’ phrases were meant for.

Uryuc made an ‘oh’ face and fell silent, seemingly deep in thought. For my part I glanced his way for several long seconds as I tried to think about whether or not the half-elf had grown up in elven society or somewhere else. Had he been born free? Would this late teenager be someone who’d potentially help if I tried to escape?

Considering I hadn’t seen him out of his cell throughout the last three days I’d spent making the gruel, it was likely Cu wasn’t interested in having the slave do anything at the manor and instead was going to sell him or something like that. Maybe he’d been tricked and trapped by the bastard dwarf like I had?

Rainer’s voice called out from behind us as he came out of the stables riding one of the small-horses and leading another by the reigns. He approached Yseldal to handle the other horse’s reigns while hurriedly saying some words.

With the both of them on their horses, Cu gave the command and the wagon set out.

Rather than get dragged behind, I moved to sit at the edge at the back of the wagon, something Uryuc imitated after it was clear neither Cu nor Rainer cared about that matter, there was a tension in the air that spoke of their fear and intent to get out as quickly and safely as possible rather than fuss over whether the new slaves walked or not.

Since we were still able to see the rampaging dragon at a distance, that seemed like an understandable sentiment.


	5. Chains

**_**

###  **-Arwen**

Of the two roads that lead away from the manor, we, sensibly, had taken the one going away from the city.

The small ‘convoy’ had travelled down the road and away from the burning city for maybe five or so hours before the sun began to rise and we came to a halt for a small break. Cu had clambered towards the middle of the wagon to get something to eat and to give to the others.

Well, the others save the two slaves chained behind the cart. From there, the group had moved in silence, always keeping an eye on the increasingly small dragon.

This had given me with ample time to think.

Though I’d never specified in my notes nor narrative the exact number of days it took between the rampage of the escaped dragon and the summoning of the otherworldly hero, I HAD stated that the summons would happen during the solar eclipse nearing the start of winter.

That left me with maybe four or so months before the plot began to move.

The hard question was what did I want to do about it.

There may have been an argument to be made about staying in the manor and slowly gaining the trust from the others until escaping would be easier, after all, having no money and on the streets of a medieval world would be incredibly tough. Not to mention winter was approaching, so that would make it harder still.

But that idea was no longer feasible for two reasons. On one hand, I had no doubt I’d be used to recharge more artifacts, and there was no pile of gold large enough to make me willingly go through that every other day. Fuck no.

On the other hand was Thruum. By calling him I’d let him know my location and as such I had no doubt he would come to find me the moment he stopped having fun rampaging around the Frostshield kingdom with Räe. I had written the red dragon to be quite private, so the number of beings who knew his true name were, basically, Räe and myself. I definitely did not want to meet either of them, there was too great a risk they would forego the courtesy of asking how I’d known his magical name and just shove themselves down my cranium to extract everything I knew. There were too many ways to magically get information out of me against which I had zero defences at this time.

I did not want that, specially when one of those possible options was to hollow out my personality and only leave a shell behind that would have access to my knowledge but would be entirely devoid of proper cognition.

No, staying was not an option, the rampage wouldn’t last that long and I had to not be at the manor when Thruum came looking for me.

Seated at the back of the wagon with my head hanging slightly, I glanced at Uryuc. If I needed to escape soon then that meant using Blaire would be out of the picture, she was no bleeding heart and convincing her of helping would require me to be able to speak Common better than a very dull caveman.

With a nudge of my knee, I drew my fellow slave’s attention. Uryuc raised his gaze and looked at me inquisitively, I in turn looked down at the chains on my wrists and pulled my wrists apart until the chain grew taut. I paused a second, looked over my shoulder to make sure none were watching us, and then repeated the gesture slowly.

“Freedom.” I said.

The half-elf appeared to hesitate, looking at the chains and then the others. His expression grew somber and he nodded.

“Freedom.” He repeated the word.

Good.

Now it was time to make an opportunity. So I took the moment to sit and think things through.

As began contemplating the potential routes for our escape, I felt the critic in me coming up and checking over the ‘techniques’ with which the slave-owner had attempted to keep me as a slave. Beatings from Rainer, electro shock from the master, starvation and thirst, and the tender empathic shoulder of Yselda. My punishments were pain, and my reward gruel and water and someone to talk to to create a positive and negative incentive system.

I was quite certain it would be effective in breaking someone in. Just adjust the level of cruelty and punishment according to the target and presto, sooner or later the slave will be left considering the prospect of fighting for their freedom to outweigh the risks and potential punishment. From there just slowly reduce their restrictions over the years, and by the end of it all, odds were they would consider the idea of being free from being your servant to be a wholly detrimental situation.

With such a system, it would be an abject failure if the slave’s desire to escape was superior to the restrictions in place to prevent it.

And right now the only thing standing between me and freedom were some manacles, Rainer, and a miniaturized wannabe Emperor Palpatine.

Piece of cake.

The chains and cuffs... had to get them off somehow. Considering neither of us had the tools to cut, pry, bend, or break them, then that meant the keys were going to be needed. Palpatine-Jr had the keys to both cuffs and the padlock that kept us chained to the wagon. Rainer had only shown to have the ones for the padlock.

With a fake yawn, I hopped off so as to start walking behind the roofless wagon, it gave me a better position to less conspicuously check-out the others and what they were doing.

Rainer and Yselda were riding and talking in low voices with one another a dozen or so meters ahead. Too far too hear, the look on their faces were grim while they kept their focus constantly shifting on the forest around us, looking for threats. Cu was currently napping from his seat as co-pilot to the wagon. Blaire was the one driving the two horses. The dirt road had forest on either side thick enough that we couldn’t see the city anymore, actually, it was dense enough that I was quite sure the horses would have trouble were they to need to go through… something to keep in mind if we had to run.

Right now there didn’t seem to be anyone else, the patches of grass that grew on the road also seemed to indicate the road itself wasn’t that well frequented to begin with.

To get the keys I’d have to get Rainer or Cu close. Rainer was too skilled and Cu had his shock-magic. Both of them presented big threats, but Rainer felt like the more dangerous one. That and Cu could remove the cuffs, so it was clear we’d need to focus on him.

But that magic… it could very well end the escape-attempt there and then.

I would’ve normally start considering ways to ensure the shock would be “grounded” and as such avoid or minimize the impact, but after a quick consideration, I was quite certain there was a component to the spell that was targeted. Either that or the shackles themselves had something about them that ensured the electricity would reach the shackled target properly. I’d been about to consider looking for a way to give the miniaturized thunderstorm a concussion quickly enough to avoid him casting the spell, but it was then that my eyes drifted to the bracelet that was on my left wrist.

It was meant to seal my magic wasn’t it? I hadn’t really paid it much attention since that first day since it wasn’t really restraining me in the sense that I had no magic spells readily available for me to use to begin with. As my previous investigation had showed, the piece of jewelry wasn’t locked by a key but rather by a sort of pressure lock that required both hands to press on four latches at the same time on opposite sides of the device.

Taking a closer look at it under sunlight, the thing looked not just very fancy but also expensive in an ornamental kind of way. Was this some magic-sealing trinket Cu had bought since he didn’t have the license to own a slave-mage?

It didn’t matter. I turned towards Uryuc and grinned, drawing his attention as I showed him the bracelet while my mind began to whirl, looking for the way for me to explain the plan through mimicry and without drawing attention.

I’d have to be thorough, if we screwed this up, odds were we’d get skewered.

Twenty minutes minutes, five failed attempts until the bracelet was removed, and several sessions of ‘charades’ later, I was confident Uryuc knew what would need to be done.

I hopped to the back edge of the cart once more, my movement drew Blaire’s attention. At first just a casual glance, her eyes quickly shot wide when she saw me reaching for an open crate filled with fruit. She opened her mouth to try and say something but froze when she realized that saying anything at all would wake Cu up. Hesitation turned to shock when I took out an apple and bit into it.

Blaire’s eyes turned from me to Cu and then back to me. She mouthed several words at me before hurriedly looking ahead at Rainer before mouthing the words at me once more, shaking her head slowly.

I chuckled and shot her a wink, tossing the apple core at Cu but missing. I took an apricot next and began eating.

Apricots, to my understanding, were reserved for the master, so the now increasingly panicked look in her eyes was quite understandable. She waved at me to drop it, to which I shrugged while continuing with my meal. Blaire was becoming growing more and more anxious as she looked at me and then back at Cu.

I tossed the apricot seed and this time it found its mark as it bounced it off the dwarf’s head.

Cu stirred and Blaire froze, her face losing color while the Master slowly opened his eyes. He muttered something in inquisitive tones, and she in turn looked my way. Cu followed her gaze. When he saw me starting to dig into the second apricot, he frowned.

Hats off to the ugly midget, I’d thought he’d fly into a rage at the sight of me eating the apricot, but the frown was instantly hidden behind a placid smile that was perhaps a bit too happy. This was followed by little man letting out a raucous laugh while he stood so as to navigate the middle of the cart towards me.

He spoke with a dumbly sweet tone of voice, the sort of tone you used when talking to a dog to get them overly eager about anything. I could see the way Blaire grew tenser as he spoke, I could hear Uryuc behind me drawing in a sharp breath, and without really understanding a single word Cu said, I knew that whatever it was that he was saying was most likely along the lines about what he’d do to me in the near future.

For my part, I was measuring distances and estimating how much closer he’d have to be to get within my effective chained-up range. But I too kept my smile on my lips much like he had, finishing the apricot and flicking the core towards him. The damp seed stuck to his tunic.

Oh wow, Cu’s self-control was on a different league, he didn’t only not instantly jump at me but had actually only frozen for a split second before smiling more widely. Silence fell as he did not speak, and I saw through the corner of my eye how Blaire was becoming paler.

Moving very slowly, Cu reached down to his leather pouch and pulled out a piece of jerky. He waved it in the air as he showed it to me, talking forcibly in an amicable tone in what I now was certain wasn’t common but instead most likely dwarvish.

“Karurta?” He asked as he stepped closer, extending his hand to offer me the jerky.

I raised my brow and moved slightly away from him so I’d have more chain length to work with and drawing him closer towards a tense Uryuc who was glancing at us only through the corner of his eyes while making a show of looking away. I grasped a third apricot and bit into its juicy flesh while carefully appraising the dwarf. He had a dagger on his belt and three pouches, one at either side and another in front. I really really hoped the keys to the chains were in one of those.

Cu laughed and stepped closer. “Karurta?” He repeated while offering the jerky, too focused on his own plans to notice anything. I could see Blaire very slowly shaking her head towards me.

I ignored it, the magic-sealing bracelet was on the palm holding the fruit. Just one more step, just a little bit closer, and he would be in the perfect range for the attack. But he didn’t step further, merely holding the piece of jerky in the air and prompting me to take it.

Tch.

I’d have to improvise a bit. “Sure, karurta.” I replied, reaching to grasp the jerky. Had I not been looking for it, I would not have caught the malicious shine in his eyes, nor felt the air charge up as he’d prepared to electrocute me.

Click.

The sealing bracelet locked smoothly around his wrist, a heartbeat of silence followed as the biggest moment of panic flowed through my veins, had it worked? Was it truly going to seal magic? The power of the electric spell felt thick around the dwarf’s hands, and if this failed I was about to get one big dose of vitamin-volt into me.

Cu looked down at the bracelet, and as he did, the magic that had been a trigger away from activating suddenly vanished.

The relief surged through me like a wave. I grinned very widely as the dwarf looked back up at me with a mix of shock and confusion. “Freedom.” I whispered as my hands reached up to grasp at the collar of his tunic and pulled him towards me and rolled backwards.

The movement caused the both of us to fall from the cart, with Cu letting out a dry cough from me weight pinning against the dirt. Instantly Uryuc jumped into the pile as his hands exploded into motion to remove the dagger from Cu’s waist.

By the time the “master” recovered enough of his senses, the dagger was on his throat.

Step one, complete.

###  **_**

###  **-Rainer**

Rainer had heard the scream first and had turned to see something was happening. Immediately he spotted Blaire stopping the cart and rushing towards the back, without needing to consider why, he turned his horse to follow. Deep in his gut he knew something bad was happening.

He rushed, only taking ten breaths to reach the frozen Blaire, he was closely followed by Yselda. “What is…!”

The minotaur froze when he saw what was unfolding. Arwen was pressing Cu face first against the dirt and holding a dagger to the base of his skull while the half-elf was hurriedly unlocking his own chains with a set of keys that had surely been taken from the Master.

Seeing Rainer, Arwen smiled brightly and spoke in the strange language of his while using his free hand to gesture for him to keep his distance.

The orange-haired half-elf was quick to speak as he shrugged off his cuffs. “Do not come closer or the Master will die!” Unlike Arwen, the half-elf spoke hurriedly and aggressively, moving to undo the chains that restrained Arwen while making sure the human could keep Cu pinned.

“Ignore him! They wouldn’t d-”

At Cu’s words Rainer prepared to charge at them.

“Firaga!” Arwen roared the spell as he’d aimed the palm of his hand towards the minotaur.

Rainer didn’t hesitate, any fighter worth their salt knew that all too infamous fire-spell and had learnt that the one and only way to not die from it was to leap out of the way. With practiced speed he had leapt off the horse and to the side, rolling and coming to his feet to prepare himself to dodge a possible second attack.

It wasn’t until then that he realized the fireball had never been cast, actually, nothing had happened. Arwen was now looking at him with an incredibly smug expression. With a wink, he raised his hand to show he was not wearing the bracelet. “Order, not die.” He said.

“We do not wish to kill anyone.” Uryuc spoke, now that he had removed Arwen’s chains, he’d taken position slightly in front of Arwen and Cu so as to partially block a potential rush. “But we would rather die and take the dwarf with us than be enslaved again.”

“No chains for Arwen.” The human spoke with his cobbled up butchered Common. “No chains for Uryuc.”

Rainer glanced towards the Master and restrained a growl on his throat when he noted the magic-sealing device was on him. He cursed under his breath, he had warned that using the ceremonial magic-sealing device was a risk, but Cu couldn’t purchase the slave-mage collar since he didn’t have the needed licenses. The minotaur chastised himself, the rush from escaping the dragon’s potential path of rampage had made him sloppy.

“Arwen, please don’t do this.” Yselda kept her distance from her horse as she looked at him, clearly troubled by what was happening. “Master is strict but-.”

The human shook his head at her, the expression resolute. “No chains.” He repeated bluntly.

“Get off the horse.” The half-elf told her.

Yselda ignored the order, keeping her eyes on Arwen, the hold on her spear growing more firmly, the both of them appearing to measure one another. Rainer moved a step to the side as he began to reach for the pommel of his sword, and Arwen’s glare was instantly on him. The human used his free hand to point at the sword and then at the ground. “Order.” He growled, the amicable smile having vanished into a glare.

“Don’t you fucking do it! They can’t run away! Without me as hostage they… urk!” Cu’s shouts were cut off when Arwen pulled the dagger from the throat, and while using his free hand to keep Cu’s neck pinned on the ground, he moved the weapon to press against his groin.

“Order.” Arwen’s face twisted with a cold grin of amusement.

Cu squeaked. “T-t-t-there’s no need to be rash!” He’d gone deathly pale. “D-do as he says.”

Rainer cursed as he grit his teeth, reaching for the sword and very slowly dropping it to the ground. “Kick it over here.” The half-elf barked, and after a moment’s hesitation the minotaur did as told.

Armed with the short sword, the half-elf then stared at Yselda. “Get off of the horse and drop your weapon.”

Though she got off the horse, she didn’t drop the spear, instead she kept her eyes on Arwen as her weapon tightened in her grip. “You can’t kill Master, the moment you do we kill you.” She replied. “A threat that can’t be carried out is no threat at all.”

She took a step closer. Arwen frowned and applied more pressure from the dagger, the dwarf screamed.

She froze at that, concern fleeting across her face, the expression turning to shock as Arwen shifted his hold on the weapon slashed across the back of Cu's thigh, neatly cutting through the pants and leaving a shallow cut that quickly began to stain the clothes crimson.

The dwarf screamed and did his best to escape, but the bloodied dagger was against his throat the next moment causing him to freeze. Arwen had not stopped looking into Yselda’s eyes the whole time. “No chains for Arwen.” He said, his voice thick with purpose.

“Don’t do it you stupid cow! I order you! Don’t you fucking dare do it!” Cu roared as he groaned on the ground. “What use am I alive if I’m cut into pieces! Stand down or I swear I will leave you ten times worse!”

At his words, all three slaves flinched. Yselda’s eyes moved to the wound, it was superficial and it was bleeding, nothing dangerous, but the threat had been clear, Arwen was not going to hesitate to do more if she persisted. A long weary sigh escaped her. “No chains for Arwen.” She agreed, dropping the spear and kicking it over to him.

The human stepped on the weapon while keeping his eyes on the two minotaurs. “Uryuc.” He spoke the name and made a gesture towards the horses.

“Don’t try anything.” The half-elf spoke with a warning tone as he carefully moved to grab the reins of both animals, his eyes remained firmly on Rainer as he kept the sword raised and pointed at the minotaur’s head. Slowly, carefully, he pulled the two beasts towards Arwen and Cu.

“Chains.” Arwen spoke, and that made Uryuc pause. The human pointed at the chains, and then at Yselda and Rainer.

“You’re crazy if you think we’ll let ourselves be chained up.” The male minotaur growled.

“Order.” Arwen spoke tiredly, the dagger pressing against Cu’s throat tightening. “And no die.”

“Ju-just do it.” Cu stuttered, paler by the second even as his wounded leg trembled.

Rainer growled but nodded, glaring at Arwen and then at Uryuc when the half-elf had approached to chain them up. The minotaur was well aware he had the key to the padlock in his pocket but not saying a word. He knelt next to Yselda as instructed by the half-elf, but rather than have his hands chained, he was surprised to see as the cuffs were placed on their ankles instead.

Rainer’s right ankle was chained to Yselda’s left one. And then, the second pair of cuffs was used to restrain both of Rainer’s ankles together. This made the minotaur feel a wave of powerless rage surge through him at the realization of what the intent had been.

“No follow.” Arwen spoke at their startled expressions as he dangled the keys he’d stolen from Cu while Uryuc mounted Yselda’s horse.

The human had shifted his gaze towards the second horse, but as he began to lift the dagger away from the dwarf’s throat, he paused as he looked towards Blaire. There was a shift in his expression, seeming to doubt, something about it seemed anxious before he tilted his head towards the blond dwarf.

His words held a curious inquisitive tone to them. “No chains for Blaire?” He blinked slightly while looking at her. Then said the one word no one had been expecting. “Orowi? _.”_

Everyone fell silent, all eyes on the blond dwarf.

 

###  **_**

###  **-Blaire**

Her mind ground to a halt, no thoughts made their way through the silence. She just stood there, hand on the wagon as she looked at Arwen and blinked dumbly. “W-what?” Came the one word out of her lips, confusion made sound.

“No chains for Blaire.” The human repeated with a simple shrug.

Her mouth had begun to move to say that she had no chains, but the words died in her throat, the moment of silence stretching on for what felt like a tiny eternity.

“She is not chained!” Cu had spoken out from under the human. “You stupid mongrel, Blaire would never…!” The words were cut off as the dagger tightened against his throat, a red line being drawn from the point of contact.

Arwen shifted his gaze from Cu back to Blaire, his eyes asking her for an answer.

The answer should be for her to shake her head, she knew it was what she should do, that she should refuse him. Life in the manor wasn’t bad, she loved tending to the horses, and the simple fact she had two good meals every day was also something to look forwards to. Besides how they’d affect the horses, she did not need to worry about the rain or cold, and she had a warm bed to sleep every…

Her eyes fell on Cu, brows knitting together ever so slightly in thought.

The dwarf noticed her gaze and looked back at her with a nervous smile, a silent plea for her to choose the right thing to do. To stay at his side, to… to…

A tight asphyxiating pressure formed around her heart at the thought.

Seeing her expression, Cu appeared increasingly confused. He’d tried to speak, but his intake of air was followed by Arwen pressing the blade deeper and forcing his voice to die out before it emerged. “No chains for Blaire.” He repeated firmly.

Blaire gulped down the knot on her throat. She should refuse him, she didn’t know what the human would do to her if or when they were free, she should want her warm bed and filling meals, she should want her dry clothes, it wasn’t so bad to be a… a….

“No chains for Blaire.” The words escaped her lips, a shock to herself as much as to the others.

Arwen nodded and shot a look at Uryuc. “No chains for Blaire.” Then he motioned towards the female dwarf followed by the free horse next to him, and then at the front of the cart. “Blaire, short-horse, order.” He smiled brightly while he waited for Uryuc to chew through the meaning of his words.

“He… wants you to get your own horse to ride?” The half-elf’s tense anger had shifted into slight confusion as he gestured at himself and then the horse. “Uryuc riding.”

Arwen nodded with a slight grin. “Blaire short-horse riding.”

The blond dwarf looked at the half-elf and then at the human, her mind was reeling at what she’d said, a sudden onslaught of nerves and hesitation followed. This was a horrible idea wasn’t it? She was going to ride two escaped slaves who had Lords-knew what intentions for her. She should definitely not be agreeing to this should she?

“Blaire?” Arwen called to her before she so much as took a step. He pointed at the spear Yselda had dropped. “Order.”

She froze, looking at the weapon, then nodded with a gulp, ignoring the looks of betrayal from the two minotaurs as she took the spear and began to walk towards Arwen to give it to him. But the human stopped her with a gesture of his hand, pointing it at her.

Did he… did he want her to keep the spear? She blinked, the thing was a tad too large for her, she did not know how to use it, did he really intend for her to wield such a thing? She turned to head towards the front and release one of the horses pulling the cart, since Arwen didn’t stop her, she felt sure he actually intended for her to keep the weapon.

An odd anxious numbness was settling into her thoughts as her brain kept trying to make sense of what she was doing. She was running away from every confort she had never known of in her life before her enslavement. She had every possible reason to want to stay, to not rebel, to not risk being hung were she to be found out to be an escaped slave.

And yet, there was a strange tugging at the edges of her lips that were trying to pull them upwards.

###  **_**

###  **-Arwen**

Watching Blaire walk with the spear tightly held in her hands, nothing but a smug grin could play on my lips. I honestly hadn’t expected that she’d agree, there was a strong doubt and frankly I wasn’t going to force her to come along if she refused.

It was important that she desired freedom on her own.

My thoughts came back to the present at the smouldering glares from Yselda and Rainer, and even the dwarf pinned under my knee was struggling with trembling rage. He was desperately trying to speak but with how tightly the dagger was pressing against his yugular, he was in a serious risk of cutting his throat open if he didn’t keep a tight control over his breathing.

I pulled the dagger away, it felt like my job here was over.

Then the dwarf began to scream at me, his face becoming increasingly redder as he became louder and louder. I’m quite sure he was mixing several languages together in an attempt to chain profanities, but since I didn’t understand a single word I didn’t really give a damn. I just turned him around and straddled his hips, the dwarf had a surprising amount of strength in his attempts to hit me from where he was, his face twisted into red fury.

I had to struggle a bit to pin his arms, and even then he was kicking and screaming even more loudly. Inwardly, I was sure that now that we’d taken “his woman” away from him, he would go through extreme lengths to find us. Frankly speaking, it made little sense to keep him alive, he posed a massive risk to my continued existence.

Hesitation spread through me as my free hand took the handle of the dagger, the blade at my flank as I used me one hand to keep the dwarf’s arms pinned. My eyes looked into Cu’s as he kept screaming profanities and throwing spittle all around while he raged on, completely ignorant of what thoughts were crossing my mind.

My pulse hastened and I gripped the dagger’s hilt tighter. Was I really going to kill someone in cold blood? I felt like a cold sweat ran down my back as I kept glaring at the dwarf’s thick throat. All I would need to do would be to plunge the dagger there, just stab him and there would be no way for him to survive. Just make a single cut and he wouldn’t be a threat to me.

I needed to do this, if I didn’t, he was sure to make an attempt on my life through some hired proxy or another sooner or latter. He had enslaved and tortured me, he deserved this, he needed to die, he HAD to die. I would kill him, there was no other option.

I had to do this. But...

My breath hitched and I held it, moving the blade out of its sheath…

“Arwen.” Yselda’s voice broke my concentration, and I turned to look at her. The kneeling woman was looking at me with pleading eyes. “No kill.”

Hesitation, I froze and blinked, and looked between Cu and the minotaur. A moment of silence followed and I let out the breath I’d been holding, the dagger returning to its spot on my hip. I had promised not to kill him hadn’t I? It felt like a cheap excuse, but… I sighed. “Yeah, no kill.”

Turning towards the dwarf, he had quieted down but not quite, still quite energetically struggling and growling and saying things that were surely threats or insults.

A wry smile crossed my lips… yeah, I wasn’t going to kill him.

With my hand wide open, I slapped his face with as much force as I could muster. The dwarf became mute from shock, but that didn’t mean I was going to stop. Releasing his held fists I balled both my hands and punched his nose with as much force as I could. Thoughts about the torture he had put me through bubbled out, the pain from the shocks and the altar very quickly creating a frothing anger.

I punched again, he raised his arms fro protect himself, I slapped them away and punched again. And again. And again. And again.

One, two, three, I lost count. I was dimly aware Yselda was saying something but I didn’t stop. I wasn’t going to kill him, the words repeated themselves inside my head as I hit the fucking dwarf over, and over, and over again. Head, ribs, arms, head, ribs, arms. My targets shifted in a rotation, I just swung down at him with everything I could every time he tried to block me, or I would switch to his sternum to punch even more harshly if I couldn’t slap his feeble guard away.

I don’t know how long I went at it, but by the time I stopped I was panting heavily and Cu was sobbing loudly. His face was swollen and no longer recognizable. The moment I stood up he curled into a ball and shuddered and whimpered and spoke words that sounded a lot like begging.

But he was alive.

“Fuck you.” I spat down at him, giving a kick to his shins as my final goodbye before hopping on to the horse.

Yselda’s eyes were teared up, and Rainer had a mix of concern and hatred as he glared at me. Behind them, Uryuc had been holding the tip of his new sword against the minotaur’s head, but was looking at me with something that seemed half-afraid himself.

I just shot a glare at the minotaur. “No kill.” I spat the word before moving the horse to move ahead in the same direction we’d been originally travelling.

Pausing for a second, I reached into the pouch I was wearing and took out the set of keys that would free them from their cuffs. “Rainer.” I called out to him, noting he had never stopped glaring at me. I raised the hand holding the keys and recognition flashed through his face.

Then, I tossed the keys as hard as I could towards the forest to the left of the cart. “Fuck you.” I said, maneuvering the horse to continue, Uryuc following close behind.

Blaire was waiting for us at the front on her own horse, her eyes looked tense and the way she held to the spear as she avoided looking directly at me spoke of fear. I didn’t care right now, we needed to get far enough from here.

With a gesture, she fell in line behind Uryuc, the both of them following me as I spurred the horse into a fast trot.

My hands were shaking. The adrenaline high had crashed down a while ago and my hands were shaking and I felt cold and in pain. My body was reminding me it was bruised all over with a vengeance, every shift of the horse’s weight made me want to groan and stop, but we had to move so I didn’t, the other two were following close behind without having said a word.

I was sure they were thinking about the consequences of their attained freedom, but for me, my thoughts were lingering on the cuntish-dwarf. I had wanted to kill him, I felt like I had been very close to actually doing so, but Yselda had stopped me.

That consideration made me shake my head and sigh. No, rather, I was fairly sure I wasn’t going to be able to fully carry through with murder in cold blood. And though I regretted that he would have a chance (and motivation) to hunt us down and kill us, I didn’t feel as conflicted about it as I knew I should have.

I still couldn’t stop chewing on the stupidity of it. Logically, it made every little bit of sense to kill the dwarf and the two minotaurs. We could then just hide the bodies in the forest away from the road and we wouldn’t have risk of things like retaliation or of being discovered to be escaped slaves. Killing them would ensure safety in the long run.

Scratching my head I groaned inwardly, I didn’t regret what I’d done on an emotional level, but intellectually I had yet to find a logical reason for sparing them besides “I felt like I couldn’t do it, and Yselda had been nice to me”.

Pushing the thoughts away, I realized I had the luxury of being certain I had a lot of ways to distract myself from mentally wrapping my mind into knots. One such way was instead discovering that riding a horse when I was only wearing a modified burlap-sack for clothes was not comfortable. This was going to chaf.

Fortunately this was not a state that would last for very long. I very much intended to get something more to wear very soon.

It had taken much less convincing than I’d thought I’d need, but we were now heading back towards the manor. We just had to go away from the wagon until they couldn’t see us, then go into the forest and then backtrack through the woods for three or so hours before getting back to the road.

The reasons for doing this were simple, first, the city was in a state of panic, Rëa might still be wrecking their shit even now, and even if she’d left, there were fires and panic and dead people to deal with. There would be no guards or soldiers patrolling, they would all have their hands full with the shit-show of the calamity and its consequences.

Second, Cu had prepared to leave the manor either for a short period of time until the calamity passed to then return, or permanently and had intended to settle in some other place he owned and arrange for everything that hadn’t fit in the cart to get sent over to his new residence.

That meant the manor was, right now, unprotected and filled with everything that didn’t fit in the wagon. Which was a lot. Even if they’d locked the doors, we only needed to break through a window and we’d have access to whatever we could get our hands on.

There was a lingering fear that Uryuc or Blaire would turn on me, but it seemed they trusted that I had a plan and were slightly afraid from the beating I’d given Cu. That should keep them from jumping me… and if they wanted to run away? I wasn’t going to try and stop them.

That was the reason why I only had a dagger while I’d let Uryuc keep the sword and Blaire the spear. I would not give them any reason to want and cut me down, and with them having better weapons it meant they had a certain level of safety knowing I couldn’t attack them.

It was in silence that we travelled, uncomfortable and tired we moved on while keeping a sharp ear and eye out in case we stumbled on to anyone undesired. We’d also given a wide enough berth to Cu&Co that we couldn’t confirm whether they’d managed to get the shackles off of their ankles by the time we’d passed them, so it was a definite risk we’d have to keep an eye out for.

The memory of bashing that fucking dwarf’s face in gave me a happy smile even after six exhausting hours on the road where the only thing we had to quell hunger and thirst had been the snack-jerky from the dwarf’s pouch we’d split evenly.

We reached the manor a couple hours past noon. We were careful to hide the horses in the forest and approach from behind while checking whether there was anyone there. Fortunately there were no signs of life. We circumvented the manor’s short stone wall and once sure there was no one we brought the horses along, leaving them tied up next to the wall on the back side, we’d left them there since the area was invisible for anyone entering through either of the main roads.

From there Uryuc and I forced our way in through the kitchen window so as to open the door from within. Blaire had remained hesitant and not very interested in coming along, instead staying with the horses while holding her new spear tightly.

There was a risk she’d run away with the horses, but I didn’t really care. Those horses were branded so selling them was surely going to be a pain, not to mention that when Cu reported the theft they would be on the lookout for them.

I left Uryuc eating to his heart’s content while I filled a small satchel with food and brought it out to Blaire who had yet to run away. The dwarf glanced at the meal and then at me, nervous. I shot her a smile, dropped the bag in front of her and simply walked back to the manor so I could have my own fill.

Afterwards, it took me a good fifteen minutes to explain to Uryuc that we had to gather everything important on the kitchen table, and that we had to keep watch to make sure we would have a chance to escape if someone came. Such as Cu returning or some guards or something.

As soon as I’d gestured towards the outside, Uryuc stepped out and loudly said some things towards Blaire. Whatever those words were, she came into the kitchen looking at either of us nervously while Uryuc spoke some more. Then, he looked at me and gestured at Blaire and at the chair she’d sat on.

I only nodded as we set out to do what we had to do.

Uryuc took first shift, and after I set out to look for some tools. I found a hammer and chisel and with it made my way into the basement and towards the altar. The metal door was less of a pain than I’d thought it’d be to open. Also, and much to my luck, the altar had been too heavy to be moved in a rush, which was why Cu had had no choice but to leave it behind.

Chisel in hand, I wrecked the magic circuits on the side of the altar where one had to press the object they wished to enchant. I was sure it was repairable if Cu paid out of his nose, and I’d want to fully wreck it had I the chance, but at the same time I wasn’t going to spend the remainder of the day completely destroying the thing with a chisel when there were more important things to do.

Then I set out to prepare for the trip.

Room by room, I first sought clothes I could wear which… well, there didn’t seem to be too much to pick from. I had to settle for some itchy wool pocketless pants with a tunic with pockets as a shirt and a piece of string working as a belt. Then I grabbed what sort of looked like a warm… mantle? It had a hole so it was sort of like a poncho and it was warm so at least I wouldn’t be cold. As for shoes…

Well, I kinda cried inside when I found that the shoes available here were basically a swath of leather wrapped around wood. I felt a mixed sense of dread and an ever growing longing for the sneakers that had been taken from me. Where were they? If I ever found those kids who’d stolen them from me...

One convenient rudimentary leather backpack later and I’d collected everything I could think of that I might need in the kitchen table. I’d also found a some coins, but those I decided we’d split with Uryuc and Blaire after we were done with his bit of resource gathering.

The dwarven woman kept giving me odd glances every time I’d enter the kitchen with my arms loaded with stuff and dropping it all on the table.

Returning to the office, I found the half-elf with a letter opener in his hand looking boredly out of the window. He turned to face me and raised a brow at the look of my clothes but said nothing. “Your turn.” I muttered with a thumb over my shoulder.

He readily understood what I meant and got to work so now that I was the look-out.

Up here on the second floor of the manor, I could see the smoke rising from the city, the fire was still roaring, but there was no dragon. That was good… I think. Still, better not spend more time in the manor than absolutely necessary…

I quickly became bored and looked back at the office Cu would probably spend countless hours in every day. There were plenty of books throughout the shelves, and a lot of empty spaces where the more important objects had been removed. I opened a couple of them at random and found no less than four different alphabets.

As much of a cunt as Cu was, he was a well read cunt it seemed.

There was little else to be found in the office, everything in the drawers and cabinets had been emptied.

At least, until I laid my eyes on the map that hung on the far wall.

It was drawn on parchment and detailing a myriad of cities and names of locations, with one such location seeming to be a large city. I didn’t need to be able to read the glyphs to know instantly that it was a map of the Frostshield Kingdom. It was a piece of a map I had poured countless hours drawing and refining. My fingers danced an inch from the fragile paper as I looked at it.

Frostshield, the kingdom that split the continent in two. With seashore to the north and the south, and mountains to the north-east and south-west. And near its center, almost at the very tip of its largest easternmost river was Highcastle, the capital.

Something stirred deep inside me when I looked at the map and realized that someone, somewhere, had spent more hours pouring over every inch of this drawing than I ever had in creating it in my mind. Every name and crevice and route had been painstakingly etched into the parchment with the utmost care for when dealing with paper and ink there was no such thing as Ctrl + Z.

I sighed as I turned away.

The map made me feel perturbed for some reason, uncomfortable.

I had spent years writing the story and the background and the rules, giving each little facet I noticed as much attention as I was able to manage, to make it as close to “real” as possible. But here I was, looking at a map with the names of cities I’d never thought of, written in a language I hadn’t come up with, with squiggly sigils of an alphabet that had never even formed in my mind.

It was as if I’d been working to draw a square and had only made a dot and considered it complete.

My eyes drifted back towards the burning city.

I felt like I’d spent all those years trying to write the story of a world I’d been looking at through a cracked and foggy lens, and it was only now that I had been allowed to see it in vivid detail.

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry.


	6. Roadtrip

**_**

###  **-Blaire**

She had remained tense throughout the whole evening, seated with her back against the far corner, holding the spear, and watching as the both of them were gathering various objects and items on the large wooden table.

Arwen’s silence was understandable considering his inability to understand anything but some very few words, but the red-headed half-elf eyed her every time he came to drop something. It unnerved her, she was used to being looked at in various ways, but while Arwen’s gaze would merely acknowledge her presence, Uryuc’s was one filled with suspicion.

And yet, it was the human who made her more nervous.

It was dusk when Arwen called for Uryuc and they gathered around the table. The human stood on one side looking at the pile of stuff they’d gathered and gestured Blaire to come closer.

She did, as had the half-elf, the both of them looked at Arwen, he shifted his focus to the pile of coins the both of them had found throughout the house. It was only a gold royals, handful of silver, and several copper.

Arwen took out a piece of parchment and drew two short parallel lines. Then, setting the parchment on the table, he placed five copper coins on one end of the two parallel lines, and then another five on the other side. Afterwards, he removed the coppers and placed two silver on one side and another on the other. Then he did the same with a single gold royal. The humans eyes were fixed on both Blaire and Uryuc as he then placed a single silver coin on one end of the parallel lines, and then bunched up the copper coins near the other edge of the paper, but not quite in front of the lines.

“Oh.” Uryuc chuckled, stepping forward and placing fifteen copper coins. “Fifteen copper to one silver.” He spoke, then he removed the silver, placed a single gold coin, and on the other side he placed eight silver coins. “Eight silver for one gold royal.”

“Fifteen. One. Eight.” Arwen repeated the numbers and then grimaced, not appearing very pleased about something.

Taking the parchment, he drew some odd looking glyphs. The first was an elongated circle, the second one a short line… and from there he drew a total of ten glyphs. Then, on the eleventh, he drew the second glyph followed by the first, then the second glyph repeated two times… and continued all the way until it was the third glyph followed by the first.

“Uon.” He pointed at the second glyph, moving a single copper coin underneath. “Too.” Two coins. “Thri.” Three coins.

Blaire nodded, he was trying to learn numbers. She felt like slapping her own forehead at not having realized it sooner. A slight tension on her shoulders left her, she stepped forward and pointed at the “Uon” glyph. “One.” Then at the next one. “Two.” And from there she continued counting until twenty. But stopped, coming back to the first glyph. “This one?”

“Ziru.” He said. He took three coins on his hand. “Three.” He removed one. “Two.” Then another. “One.” And then the last one, leaving his hand empty. “Ziru.”

“Zero.” Uryuc nodded.

“Zero.” Arwen repeated with a slight smile. Then turned to the pile of coins, took the piece of charcoal, and began scribbling his strange glyphs on it in a very odd order, with new ones appearing in the mix. Then he stopped, and paid close attention to the glyphs he’d written to divide the coins into three piles.

A quick mental calculation told Blaire they were of as close a value as one could make them to be considering there was no spare change to be handled. An approximation of twelve silver coins per pile. Arwen pushed one pile towards Uryuc, and the other towards Blaire. The third pile he took and emptied into the strapped pack he was carrying.

The half-elf glared at the pile that had been pushed towards Blaire, reaching out to her pile of coins. “She wasn’t a slave, she doesn’t deserve anything.” Blaire deflated slightly at that, clutching the spear.

“Uryuc.” Arwen levelled his gaze at the half-elf. “No.”

He did not pull out his dagger nor did he make any movements, the human merely looked at Uryuc firmly, remaining perfectly still and holding the half-elf’s gaze. Until the later looked away and pulled his hand away from Blaire’s pile of coins. It was only then that the tension diffused and Arwen smiled again, nodding firmly. He paused, then reached into his pack and pulling a silver coin out, tossing it at the half-elf.

Uryuc caught the coin and looked at the human with confusion, was this meant as a reward of some sort? But his silent question was ignored, Arwen had taken the parchment once more and begun to draw. Blaire stepped closer to see him drawing a single long line, followed by a tree at one edge and the sun above. “Daee.” He spoke, then he covered the drawn sun with his finger and drew it again but beneath the line where the tree stood. “Nit.”

“Day and night.” Uryuc nodded, wondering what would be the purpose of these new words he wanted to learn.

Arwen nodded, then made a circular gesture with his hands, pointing at himself, then Blaire, then Uryuc, and then at the ground. “One night.” He said, and then pointed at the door. Afterwards, he returned to the parchment, drawing the sun just above the line of the horizon. “One night, no one day. One night.” And then the door again.

He returned to the parchment, drawing a horse… well, a very badly made horse, but it didn’t seem it could mean anything else. “One night, no one day.” The human placed both hands besides his head, closing his eyes, then made an exaggerated yawn, then marched on the spot, and then closed both hands into fists, placing them besides one another and bobbing them up and down as he made a whinny sound distantly similar to a horse’s.

The absurdity of it all couldn’t prevent Uryuc from breaking a slight smile on his lips, and even Blaire had to admit she found it hard not to grin.

“We leave tomorrow morning.” The half-elf nodded.

Arwen nodded vigorously. “We leave tomorrow morning.” He repeated the words, mouthing each part silently, taking a minute or two to do mimicry of the meaning of each word and getting some corrections from the other two along the way.

A strange air was settling around the three, it was hard to describe it, but the struggles the human was having with learning Common was helping in reducing the tension.

Then he returned to the paper, drew a line, the tree, and the sun right above the line. “Morning.” He said, getting a confirmation from the other two. Then he drew a square with a triangle on top, and once he added the two windows and door it became clear it was a house. Arwen pointed at the drawn house with one hand and then made a circular gesture to the kitchen around them. “Manur.”

They nodded, teaching him the word. Then, he drew an odd line that began at the floor next to he house, rose high, then made a zig-zag while traversing above the house, and then descended back to the floor. Arwen pointed at the chimney and spoke three words that made Blaire feel a chill.

“Morning, house, firaga.”

The human was going to burn the house to the ground.

They had argued about it, Uryuc had been reluctant of leaving and had instead tried to argue to stay and turn the place into their stronghold. Blaire was quite happy about the idea of leaving, but she couldn’t bear the thought of the stables being reduced to ashes.

But neither of their arguments deterred Arwen. All he needed to do was pull them towards the Master’s office and point at the smouldering city. Hew drew a badly proportioned dragon, and then drew a second one, and then he pointed at the ground.

Neither understood what he meant, but at the same time they noticed the tension on the human’s face as he kept pointing at the dragons and then at the floor.

The message seemed clear enough: this place would be ruined. Either desperate vandals from the city, or Cu himself coming back, staying here would be a calamity for them. And under the circumstances that the place would undoubtedly be reused by others, burning it down would ensure that at the very least it would not serve to allow more slaves to come through.

Or at least that was Uryuc’s interpretation after a good half hour of looking at the two drawn dragons.

Blaire had to agree with the idea at least, even if reluctantly.

The house would be burned come morning, the thought left her restless.

In the darkness of night, she found herself unable to sleep. She rose from her bed and looked at it through the dim moonlight that slipped from the window. This would be the last time she would see this place… it would be the last time anyone would sleep on that bed.

Bitter memories surged from these thoughts, and quite suddenly she couldn’t stand being in there any longer. She put her shoes on and left, traversing the manor and heading outside, but before she opened the door, she spotted Arwen through the window.

The human was standing in the middle of the yard, his head was tilted backwards and he was looking up into the night sky.

She couldn’t help herself from wondering what he was doing.

Blaire didn’t want to draw his attention, so she decided to just stay still and wait, carefully observing Arwen as he remained looking upwards. The human had an awed expression in his face, as if it was the first time he had seen the stars and moon.

Not for the first time, she wondered just what kind of person this human was.

**_**

###  **-Arwen**

Turns out that waking up early was not a simple task; specially when you’ve spent a whole lot of hours stargazing while also recovering from multiple beatings. I mean, I might be feeling irritated and exceedingly tired, but looking at that night sky for so long my legs had gone a bit numb was totally worth it.

This era might not have running water nor a properly functioning waste-disposal system, but nothing, and I do mean nothing was more astoundingly breathtaking than the night-sky when things like light-contamination and air-pollution didn’t exist.

NOTHING.

Still, I had something else to look forward to once the stars were gone: fire.

The little-big pyromaniac in me was guiddy at the prospect, I spent a good portion of two hours spreading oil and hay and making piles of wood throughout the manor to ensure it would burn well and burn bright. Uryuc and Blaire spent the time giving the place one last-second look-over for anything we may need. Once they were out I lit the flames on the roof, moving down floor by floor and lighting up the other piles as I went.

By the time I’d stepped outside, the first flickering flames were licking at the rooftop and smoke was spewing out the open windows. I rushed towards the others that were waiting outside the stone fence that surrounded the property. There the three of us watched for nearly an hour, myself with a manic glee while Blaire and Uryuc appeared conflicted in some way… and worried once they noticed the massive grin on my face.

As the smoke turned to fire and soon the house was a raging inferno. When the roof collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust, we set out to follow the road opposite to the one Cu had taken to escape.

The ride was quiet, we kept at it a couple hours. Blaire was at the back of the line again, with her spear, but I noted there was a complicated look on her face, as if she couldn’t quite settle on what to feel about things. I could sort of understand her. A bit.

Soon I called out to stop, my bruises had endured enough. Frankly speaking I’d pushed myself too far this past day and a half. I should be staying in a warm cozy bed… somewhere far away from where a pair of pissed-off dragons may show up.

With the break, we tied the horses to a tree, and I pulled out the hand-drawn map I’d made copying the one at Cu’s study. The map was of the local area, it only contained Highcastle city and the neighbouring towns. I’d copied the names from the map, but I’d lie if I said I could read them.

My drawing got the attention of the other two, so I decided that maybe it was time to inquire if I should grow to trust them properly or not. On the dirt I drew three letters. An A, an U, and a B. “This is Arwen.” I circled the ‘A’ and pointed at myself. “This is Uryuc” I circled the U. “And this is Blaire.” I circled the B.

Stretching my hand, I touched the A. “Arwen.” I looked at the other two.

They hesitated for a moment while I remained still, then, they each reached for their letter and said their name.

Nodding, I then brought the map. Right now it was mid to late summer, there were several months ahead before Hero was summoned into this world, and before that happened I had to not just stay alive, I had to get capable enough I could trail or even aid Lucas’ cliqué without getting in their way. I needed to learn magic, however, considering that it took years to reach a level that could pose a threat to humans let alone other more mystically inclined critters; I would have to ‘cheat’.

To do that, I needed to create a special item. And to create that item I needed some pieces of technical information that were from the “details” of the setting that as an “overview” author I had never drawn or fully fleshed out in my head. Fortunately this information was readily available in most if not all magically-pertinent libraries, so I was going to head out to the biggest library containing detailed information on magic that was within travelling distance… well, the second one, the first one got burnt during Rëa’s rampage last night if I remember properly from the story.

So, with my dirt-stained finger, I drew an ‘A’ on the edge of the map that was south of Hightower, following the river.

I turned the map towards them, and left it at their feet, watching intently. This was the lingering question, whether they’d want to tag along or go elsewhere.

Uryuc looked at me with a frown, then at the map. There was hesitation in his eyes, he raised his finger, eyes were scouring the paper to find an answer that wasn’t really there. Then, he drew the ‘U’ on top of my ‘A’, passing the map to Blaire.

She took longer to decide than Uryuc, but she drew the ‘B’ on top of the other two. Uryuc didn’t seem quite happy about it but kept quiet.

I ignored the half-glare, the smile on my lips was matching the swell in my chest, I couldn’t help myself from jumping with a happy shout (and immediately regretting it because of the bruises). Their faces showed restrained smiles as I folded the map and hummed a happy little tune while munching on a little jerky snack.

Much to my surprise, Uryuc approached me a moment after, he spoke a single word. “Truoca?” I tilted my head, and he took the map from the pack, he opened it and pointed at where I’d said I’d be going, then pointed at me, and then raised his hands at the same time he tilted his head.

“I don’t understand.” I spoke, looking at him in confusion. This was one of those complicated words wasn’t it.

He kept pointing at me and then the spot on the map, muttering “Truoca?” over and over, shooting me that inquisitive tone and tilted head. 

I spotted Blaire watching us with a great deal of curiosity while Uryuc’s frustration grew. 

Eventually he just gave up, sighed dejectedly, and mounted up with the rest of us. The half-elf looked quite defeated. I just patted his shoulder as I passed him to go back to the lead position. 

My mind began to wander back towards the subject of magic, now that I had a destination and a plan in mind, I was all too aware that even if I created the item, I’d be unable to use it if I didn’t have at least a basic grasp on magic. So, I needed to learn the basics. 

The basics were quite simple really. Step one, find your core. Step two, open your core and make the mana flow out and about inside your body. Step three, push the mana out of your body. Step four, manipulate the mana outside your body to the shape of the desired spell. Step five: Firaga. 

I’d written a whole lot about the process of learning magic, specially during the various training phases the Hero had had to go through. I had also made plenty of mentions about how it ‘felt’ and of several techniques that helped learn it better. 

There was only one problem, right now my body wasn’t just wounded, it had had its magic forcefully extracted until it went dry several days in a row. I had little doubt there was damage inside me at this point, and I also knew that trying to do manipulate mana when I have 0 experience with it would worsen the situation; doubly since there were no experts to make sure I wasn’t doing something stupid. 

Worst came to worst? I could end up crippling myself into being unable to do much more than shine a light. 

I wasn’t going to take that risk, so I promised myself that I would only do the first step of the training until I’d recovered from all my booboos. 

Closing my eyes while we rode on, I tried to focus and look within myself. 

“Ahck!” I screamed out a second afterward, I'd nearly fallen from my tall-pony. Instead of my mana core, what I’d found had been a low hanging branch that nearly made me fall off from the panic of the shock. 

Lesson learned, I begrudgingly opted to continue my attempts albeit with my eyes open. 

I ignored the sound of an amused chuckle behind me.  


**_**

###  **-Uryuc**

Arwen was slowing them down.

Uryuc felt that there was a strong need to hurry out of there since the dwarf-noble had been left alive and as such it would only be a matter of time before they’d have to make a run for it. The short-horses were branded with Cu’s crest and surely someone would realize they’re stolen sooner or latter.

So the farther away they were from Cu and those he’d talked to, then the better.

But Arwen wasn’t just wounded but also had a poor physical condition. The human wasn’t fit enough to ride all day and had to take breaks every handful of hours. Not to mention that he always had them help him learn more Common whenever they made camp, which was not ideal since the talking could draw attention in the worst of times.

Though the half-elf had a sinking feeling part of it was to cover for the dwarf’s own clear shortcomings when it came to riding.

Uryuc had tried to push for an explanation from him regarding why they were going southwards rather than straight east and out of Frostshield kingdom, but he’d yet to know enough Common to properly be able to even understand the question of “Why are you going there?”.

It was vexing.

As they settled down to make camp, Arwen crossed his legs and closed his eyes as he’d usually do and sighed wearily. “Long day.” He muttered, cupping his hands together and becoming very still.

That always managed to unnerve Uryuc, the half-elf was quite aware that Arwen was paying close attention to them, but by all accounts the human looked like he was two steps away from falling asleep.

The female dwarf glanced at the human with the curious expression once more, Uryuc decided not to less it pass this time. “You’ve seen someone do something like that before, haven’t you.”

She hesitated, probably from him having decided to talk to her for the first time in over a day. “Master Cu…”

“Cu.” Arwen spoke, a correction he seemed to insist upon was not calling the former Master ‘Master’, which for Uryuc is was just fine.

“...Cu… sometimes became like this, but I never asked about it.” She said, she hesitated a moment, then nodded to him. “Were you a slave before… Cu… uh… acquired you?”

The half-elf flinched and crossed his arms. “I was not a slave.” He said with a harsh bite to his words. “I’d been a smith.”

“How did you…?” She began to ask, but saw as he shook his head, she lowered her head and looked at the ground. “I wasn’t born a slave, but my parents sold me because they had a big debt… or so I’ve been told.” Pausing, she glanced at Arwen’s still form.

Uryuc raised an eyebrow. “So you and him…?”

“What?” The dwarf blinked for a moment before connecting the dots, her face immediately scrunched up as she shook her head. “No.”

“Then why did he take you in?” Uryuc asked unabashedly, taking a gulp out of his wineskin. His words instantly earned a glare from her, which he didn’t hesitate to return. “You weren’t a slave, not really, you had access to the free stables and as far as I could tell you had plenty of chances to get away had you wanted to.”

Blaire hesitated, but the glare did not abate. “If you don’t know why, then ask him when he can understand the question.”

“You don’t know either, don’t bluff.” The red-head snapped in irritation.

“Then maybe I’ll ask him.” She growled.

That brought a wave of amusement from him, gesturing at Arwen but stopping, realizing the human had had his eyes open and watching them intently. “Ask what.” His voice had an eerie calmness to it, Uryuc could feel something was… odd about him, like his presence had shifted in some way he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

The dwarf paused, thinking her words through. “No more chains Uryuc.” She said, snapping her wrists away from one another. “No more chains Arwen.” She pointed the space between her wrists and repeated the gesture again. “Chains Blaire where?”

“Where? I do not understand word.” Arwen spoke, tilting his head.

Blaire groaned and scratched the back of her head, standing up. “Where Uryuc?” She pointed at the half-elf. “Uryuc there. Where tree? Tree there.” She pointed at the tree behind Arwen.

He tilted his head slightly. “Where Arwen yesterday?”

She paused and then pointed far off in the distance. “Arwen was there.”

“Where, there.” He nodded, then frowned. “Where chains Blaire? Ask?”

She nodded, tensing, clearly apprehensive to Arwen’s answer. Uryuc made sure not to show it, but he too felt an inkling of curiosity. The both of them looked at the human tilt his head and sigh. He stood up and walked towards the dwarf until they were face to face. “Blaire chains here.”

He poked her forehead, startling her into taking a step back. “Chains there… uh… many.” With a shrug, he returned to his cross legged position with a self-amused smirk.

“I want to ask something.” Uryuc stepped forward. “Why…” He paused, then took a moment to bring out the map from Arwen’s pack. “Why us go there.”

“Why, go.” Arwen muttered.

“To go is to…” He paused, then breathed deeply. “I go there.” He pointed to a spot and then moved towards it. “I go there.” He then moved to another place.

“Why go. ‘Where’ is ask. ‘Why’ is ask?” He inquired, raising his hands to the air and bending his fingers into hooks to emphasize ‘Where’ and ‘Why’.

“Why is ask.” Uryuc nodded, this time he felt the anxiousness rising slightly.

Arwen lowered his head looking at the ground while holding his chin in thought. Then grinned widely. “Firaga.”

That made Uryuc’s thoughts stop.

“I go there. I… Firaga.” He made a ‘pew’ sound as he pointed his palms towards the flames of the campsite.

“Wait.” Blaire blinked as she heard this. “Is he saying he wants to be a mage?”

Uryuc frowned, remembering the bracelet Arwen had had him remove before he’d used it on Cu to seal away his magic. “I think he may actually be one.”

“I doubt it.” Blaire shook her head with a frown. “Maybe he was going to become an apprentice before Cu captured him.”

Just as she spoke this, the dwarf appeared to have thought of something, she stood up, grabbed the map, and settled in front of Arwen. “Where you?” She asked, causing him to frown and point at the area around Hightower in the map. “No, where you forty yesterdays.”

“Oh.” The human didn’t look at the map, he was instead glancing at her and then at Uryuc. Slowly, he shook his head, sighing heavily. “No where.”


	7. Disaster

**_**

###  **-Arwen**

Things were not looking good for Highcastle.

The city had the river located to its west, and Cu’s manor had been a bit north-west of that, so to go south we had to circle around the city eastwards before turning south, from there we’d just have to follow the road and we’d get to our destination sooner or later.

Frostshield kingdom had rivers, forests, and plains. And little else. There were a couple marshes and things got rocky nearing the north-eastern and south-western borders, but otherwise? The whole land was quite flat with small hills and small valleys all over and not much else to it. It was a kingdom where everything and everyone wanting to go from one side of the continent to the other, without a doubt, need to pass through a Frostshield city or port.

It was a kingdom of merchants and traders and riders.

And Highcastle was more so than any other city in Frostshield. Its port at the river was the largest in-land port in the kingdom, and all but one of the land trading routes in the kingdom passed through this one city. This meant that the city’s life depended on the gears of commerce turning.

Right now, those gears were stuck.

Even from as far out as we were, slowly circling the city from far enough I could cover it with the palm of my hand, even from that far out, we could see the caravans turning around at the sight of the smoldering city. Most quickly avoided the place and carried on in another direction, very few ignored its burnt state and carried on into its soot-covered walls.

At the sight of this, we decided not to rush through towards the southern road. We kept our distance from caravans as much as other riders kept a safe distance from us, but when night fell, we could see hundreds of fires littering the plains surrounding Highcastle as each group of travelers settled into their own spot to sleep in.

As we traveled, my eyes would wander towards the blackened walls.

The city would recover, in time, but this winter at least half of it would be in ruin. Many who’d survived the flames and had not escaped to find a new life elsewhere were likely to starve or freeze to death come winter. The Queen would attempt to keep her people alive through various means, but the devastation here and in the villages and cities between here and Rëa’s lair would put a serious strain on Frostshield’s resources.

Thousands would die on the streets, helpless, starved, cold.

At that thought, I felt a twinge of… something… I couldn’t really describe it. Was it… guilt? A part of me acknowledged I hadn’t just created this scenario in my story, I had worsened it by calling Thruum so he would join his mate in the rampage. In a very real sense, it could be claimed all these deaths and the many more to come were caused by my interests.

“Or maybe I was never a God.” I mulled the thought over, speaking to myself in English and feeling like it was the only way not to completely degenerate into caveman-speech. “Maybe I just had the power to see what was happening and what was going to happen had I not appeared here and wrote it down. Maybe my ‘edits’ were nothing less than me realizing my vision was mistaken and correcting it.”

The hopeful thought fleeted through me, and I quickly crushed it. Even if I hadn’t been the God of creation of this world before coming here, I was now here and aware of truths and secrets and events that, in on themselves, felt like a heavy burden.

A bitter chuckle followed. “If we find a lever that seems to do nothing, and I’m the only one who knows that pulling it would result in the deaths of dozens while not doing so would result on the deaths of thousands… does it mean that regardless of action or inaction, I am the one responsible for the resulting massacre?”

I mulled it over despite myself. If there was such a thing as a “happy ending” for the whole of the world, a result where peace was achieved and a new golden age were called forth… would all the death and sacrifices have been worth it? Would it be considered “Just” or “Good” for me to indirectly (through action or inaction) kill hundreds of thousands of innocents who knew nothing other than the simple lives they lead… all because I was the one who knew there would be no other way to achieve the utopic ending?

“If oracles exist, no wonder they only ever speak cryptically,” I muttered at no one at all but my own ears. “Give the pitiful mortals only able to live in the present the option to escape their demise with an ambiguous hint… and then wash your hands from all responsibility. It wouldn’t be your fault they didn’t comprehend your warning after all… or something along those lines?”

My eyes turned towards Blaire. I knew her mind inside and out, and I knew that for her to become the sort of badass ruthless cutthroat the slave-revolts would need as their leader… she would have to suffer. A lot. She’d need to grow to hate ‘the masters’ with every fiber of her being, to see them as the greatest enemy. Without that unwavering hatred and mistrust she would eventually run into someone she would hesitate against… and die.

Would the revolts succeed even if Blaire wasn’t the most feared rebel in the continent? Would it be fair of me to put her through hell if I deemed her unfit to fulfill the role she’d been destined to fulfill? I knew the answer to these questions, but I still did not like it because it pointed to a larger question I dared not answer: How much suffering would I be willing to create just to find my way back home?

“Knowledge is power, and I know too much.” A heavy groan had escaped me... "Or maybe I just think too much."

Not wanting to continue this line of thought, I shook my head to clear it out so I could instead focus on my other source for headaches: My magic.

I had meditated every day for a couple hours after waking up, and another couple before going to sleep, in my mind, the sensation of my “core” should have been clear from the memory of those times when my mana had been forcefully extracted. It had been a hard sphere inside my chest, an orb which the forceful extraction cracked before sucking the mana out.

But now? Now every time I closed my eyes and focused, I would feel the warmth of mana inside me that I dared not manipulate until all my aches were healed; despite this, I just couldn’t find my core, the best I got was this odd wet-ethereal-sponge-like squishy sensation. It didn’t make sense to me, but I was sure I was getting close.

In other news, least learning Common was advancing smoothly... even if Uryuc and Blaire kept trying to push towards an explanation as to where I came from.

Like right now.

They had drawn the whole kingdom of Frostshield and the neighbouring areas on the dirt. They even added a couple rivers and used jagged lines to symbolize mountain ranges at the borders. Blaire pointed her stick at a north-west corner of the kingdom and kept saying “Baby Blaire”, while Uryuc pointed at the middle-east of the kingdom saying “Baby Uryuc.”.

I mean, I understood what they were trying to get me to reveal, it was sweet and fun in a sense as they then handed the stick to me and basically burned a hole on it with their eyes while they waited for me to point where ‘Baby Arwen’ had been at.

“Good luck with that.” I muttered under my breath in English.

I’d originally thought to aim it at the sky, or perhaps just point towards some of the unoccupied lands, but quickly discarded the idea since it didn’t feel quite right. Maybe it would be best to pretend I lost my memories? I knew it was a sort of cliché, but frankly speaking it’d be way better than “Oh hey, where I came from I’m basically your God or just some weird version of an Oracle” or something.

Sighing, I pointed at where we were at right now. “Arwen today.” Then moved it a smidge westwards. “Arwen five yesterdays.” Another smidge. “Arwen ten yesterday's.” Then I poked at Highcastle city. “Arwen twelve yesterday's.” And then I made an exaggerated sigh. “Arwen twenty yesterdays, I not ask answer.”

‘Ask answer’ being my way to saying ‘to know’, because it seemed they didn’t have a singular word for the concept and I’d yet to understand in what context applied which version. I kept getting it wrong.

Fuck, it was a headache to talk like this. Even if improving at it, it felt tiring a lot of the times from the frustration of not being able to express myself properly.

At least I’d be a master of charades when I got back.

The both of them looked at one another skeptically, it seemed that as much animosity they held, the “Mystery of Arwen” was in some sense part of the reason they kept a minimum level of civility between them. “Arwen Thirty thirty thirty thirty yesterday's where?” Uryuc insisted.

I shook my head. “I not ask answer.” Touching my head, I sighed deeply. “I not ask answer where yesterday of yesterday of yesterdays.”

The two of them glanced at one another with a look of pity, silence would have been soon to follow if not for... “Why Firaga?” Blaire continued.

That was a new question, and actually perked me up slightly at having not expected it. Magic, now THERE was a subject that got me going. I moved to open the backpack and took out the small glass orb Cu had used to test my power almost half a month ago. As I extended my palm, the sphere filled out with black and red swirls that began to shine brightly.

I… frowned at that. Ignoring the other’s words, my eyes fell on the object as I studied the results, the last time it had been a multifaceted rainbow of colours. If I remembered properly, such a result came from someone having high amounts of mana but not having had developed an affinity.

Sure, gaining a specific colour meant that my mana had taken a penchant in one particular direction, which was to be expected, but what I couldn’t make heads or tails of was what it being red and black meant.

Red and yellow was fire. Black and gray were shadows. Affinities did not mix and mash however, there was no such thing as “Shadow flame affinity”. One could have a main affinity and a secondary one, and even then they weren’t impeded from casting spells outside of these pechants, it only meant that casting within their specialty would be more efficient and effective.

“So what the hell kind of affinity is black and red?” I asked myself. It seemed there were more potential results to the orb’s test than what I had accounted for in my writing. Guess I’d have to check that once we got to the library, I had little doubt there were plenty of records about these sorts of tests and their results.

“Take.” I offered the orb to them, Uryuc snatched it as he was the closest. The half-elf made a weird face as within the marble a very dim white and blue blob formed. A strong ice affinity… apparently despite his hot-headedness. Shame he barely had mana. The half-elf kept looked at the blob as the blob danced inside the marble.

Then Blaire asked for it and the marble went to her. For a moment I’d thought nothing had happened but as I leaned closer I saw a tiny flickering red and yellow light dancing near the center. Made sense, though she had fire affinity, she had as low an amount of mana as one could get.

Uryuc seemed smug about the result, the dwarf just rolled her eyes at him while handing the orb back to me. “Firaga?”

I shook my head. “No firaga.” I pointed at Uryuc, who deflated quite quickly. “No firaga.” I pointed at Blaire, she just shrugged. “Yes firaga.” I pointed at myself, it being my turn to be smug.

Pausing, I brought out the map, my finger pointed once more towards the south of Highcastle. “Arwen.” I passed the map towards Blaire.

She nodded. “Blaire.” She pointed in the same direction, and then gave it to Uryuc.

The red-head hesitated, glancing at me and then at Blaire, frowning and shaking his head, he pointed at the same spot. “Uryuc.”

I felt he’d had to convince himself about it. “If you say so.” I muttered with a shrug.

With a nod, I decided it was time to bring out an important discussion item before they ganged up on me with a new question. I took out the sack that the tall-pony I rode had been carrying and brought it to the camp-site. Opening it for others to see, I made a motion at the empty space. “Three food, two food, one food, zero food.” I indicated, hoping to get my message across. “Days food ask. Zero food bad.”

“Zero food bad.” They nodded along, sighing heavily in turn as they looked at one another with worry.

Carefully, I brought out the food I’d divided into parcels by putting them into folded pieces of linen. “One day, Two days, Three days… Six days.” I counted the days I had left. “Eight days if small food.” Looking at them expectantly, they moved to count the supplies they carried.

Uryuc had eaten the most out of us, probably because he hadn’t compartmentalized it, he’d have enough for four days without stretching it thin. I gave him one of my packets and he shot me a weird look again like when I’d given him the silver coin back at the manor. I just waved at the expression and rolled my eyes.

“Food coin ask?” I pointed at the fires that littered the darkening fields.

“Purchase.” Blaire spoke as she tossed a copper coin at me and grabbed a parcel of food. “Sell.” She then pushed the parcel back and made a motion for me to give her the coin. An easy enough concept.

“Purchase food?” I reiterated, lifting the parcel. “One, two, three, coin?”

“Price.” Uryuc said. “Big price, big coin, small price, small coin.”

“Price food ask?” My hand kept the parcel of food in the air as I stared at them. Man, it was weird returning to capitalism, a weird sensation came over me and my attempt at figuring out the value of food and how much purchasing power my stack of coins had.

“Five, six, seven, eight copper.” Blaire replied. “Between Five eight copper.”

A new word, I sighed and stood to move to a spot. “Arwen between Blaire Uryuc.” Her nod was the confirmation I needed, so back to sitting I went. Welp, it seemed we had at least a temporary solution to our food shortage, though we’d have to look for ways to find more food or to earn coins sooner than later.

I decided to go back to meditating until it was my turn to be the guard over the camp.

**_**

###  **-Yselda**

“Has he woken?”

The female minotaur felt the question weigh down on her shoulder like a falling tree. She need not say a word to Rainer, only shaking her head as she cleaned her hands on the basin.

His expression grew grim. “And the healer?”

“The one here was called to Hightower under the Queen’s decree. To aid with the disaster.” Yselda clutched her hands tightly.

The statement caused Rainer’s frown deepen. “Have you ever seen such a thing before?”

She’d been about to answer, but was interrupted by a thump and a scream.

Instantly the both of them rushed into the room. Master Cu was on the floor, writhing as he clutched his gut. Bloodshot yellowed eyes opened at the sight of them. “Do not approach me!” He screamed between coughs, the veins on his face bulging and turning blacker.

They froze where they were, watching with an increasing sense of powerlessness as their Master clutched his jaw shut and screamed. They flinched, partially horrified as the veins leading to his arms were becoming more visible, and darkening.

“Master!” Yselda took a step forward.

“NO!” Cu screamed as he toppled over, clutching his gut. “This… this is a curse.” A humourless laugh escaped him. “I should’ve known… denounced him to the imperators…”

“Master…” Yselda held her own arm tightly.

“Listen to me!” The dwarf panted for air, pulling himself to sit on the floor and lean against the wall. “The… the Church of Swords, go to them. In my… in my pocket…” He frowned as he touched his tunic, before shaking his head. “...doesn’t matter. Go to the Church, tell them…” Heaving air, he coughed and groaned, jaw clenching tightly and suppressing another scream. “Tell them that that slave… he’s… tell them I’ve been cursed by someone not from the mud. They’ll… they’ll know what that means.”

“Yes.” Tears were beginning to form on the corners of her eyes. Yselda barely managed to nod emphatically while stiffing her upper lip. “We will, Master.”

“Good.” Nodding, he made a gesture towards the door. “Hurry.”

“Yselda, you take care of Master, I’ll go tell the priest.” Rainer didn’t hesitate, rushing out the door and slamming it behind him.

“You should go too.” Cu looked up at her weakly, pale and shivering, the dwarf appeared barely able to remain conscious.

“Nonsense.” She replied softly, she wanted to help him back onto the bed, but the dwarf refused to let her close. “Master…”

“If you get close... the curse… it could pass on to you.” He spoke between coughs. “That damn slave… Probably cast it before leaving.” There was a heavy sigh, followed by more coughing, the dwarf shuddering and starting to tremble. “It was… it was too good to be true… I knew I should’ve…”

His head limped forwards and he became silent.

A cold shiver ran down Yselda’s back, and all too suddenly she was not afraid of being cursed. She rushed to the dwarf. “Master?” She reached to touch his jugular, to find a pulse. “Master!?” Greater desperation tainted her words while her fingers frantically searched for any signs of life. “Master!”

No matter how much she looked, there was no life to be found.

**_**

###  **-?????**

The splash of water combined with his heavy breathing deafened his ears. The tunnel was narrow, damp, and dimly lit, but his eyes could catch the flicker of shadows created from the torches of those chasing him.

"Don’t let him get away!" They spoke in that gibbering human tongue, repeating themselves as if unable to say anything else.

He limped as he pushed himself to move faster, his wounded leg burned, his tail subconsciously leaning to the opposite side to help alleviate and compensate for the wound. But the bleeding was profuse and it would only be a matter of time before he collapsed.

If he didn’t lose the pursuers before then...

Mana pooled within his hands, the spell dancing through his mind as he followed the forms. He jumped, drawing an arc with his palms and aiming the magic upwards. A burst of air followed and the whole tunnel rumbled. Several large rocks fell on the floor…

...but the tunnel had not collapsed.

A curse escaped his lips and he tried to run as hard as he could go, hoping that at least the couple seconds worth of panic from the pursuers would ensure he’d have a chance to find somewhere to hide… or to at least get out of this damn maze.

Light. A sliver of it, he had barely caught sight of it and had had to take a step back to confirm. Freedom. He glanced back at the pursuers, their torches had grown distant, had he managed to slip out of their attention through the flickering shadows?

A deep breath to calm himself, his steps slowed, he had to make sure not to lead them to his location through noise.

Carefully, slowly, impatiently, he limped between fallen pieces of debris and the columns of the underground labyrinth. The ray of light was probably only visible to him, whose eyes could clearly see in perfect darkness, whereas the humans would be partially blinded by their own torches.

Just a bit, just a little more, just another step. He kept telling himself over and over, not very far until he got out, until he met with the others and they’d escape the city under the cover of darkness. No more skulking and scurrying through the underground completely lost and having to feed on rats and other creatures that survived in the filth. A fortnight down here had been too long, far too long.

He missed the sea.

His breath hitched when he reached the tiny sliver of light. Peeking through it he could see the moon’s light, the surface was so close.

Carefully this time, he pooled his mana, he gathered it and twisted it around, a sharp ear out for the humans that were looking him among the shadows of hundreds of columns. He wanted to get the spell perfectly right this time, and there was not much mana left, there wouldn’t be a second chance either.

Once it was prepared, he let it loose on the stone and soil above his head. The magic unravelled and spread upwards, bit by bit gaining hold of every gram of dirt and applying control over it. Slowly, the column leading upwards widened, until was just half again the width of his own shoulders.

The spell ended silently, he shuddered, feeling weak from the exertion. He only had to climb, no big deal, he’d had to do worse on a daily basis during his training days. With a moment to recover his breath, he leapt and grasped at the lower edge of the shaft.

The rock crumbled and he fell.

“He’s over here!” Someone shouted.

There was little time, he had to get out right now. With an effort, he crouched and readied himself to jump again. Just one more jump and he’d be out of their reach.

He leapt.

A hand grasped his leg and pulled.

“NO!” He screamed as his hand couldn’t grasp the wall firmly enough.

He fell as the humans gathered around him.

There would be no escape.

**_**

###  **-Rainer**

Their home was gone.

Rainer and Yselda stood side by side, the male minotaur barely registering that she was holding his hand tightly. The both of them stood frozen in shock at the sight of the burnt remains of the manor that for many years had been their home.

“So he doubled back.” The voice was stern and cold, the human man stood tall within his silver armor. His steps were heavy, crushing everything under his soles as he stepped closer to the smoking ruins, carefully peering. “It seems he knows we would try tracking him.” The golden sword on his chest-plate glimmered under the sun, piercing blue eyes met the minotaur’s. “Was the manor the only place he’d been in? Do you know anywhere else he might have spilt blood?”

Rainer found his voice after a long silence, shaking his head. “After Master brought him, we kept him locked in the cellar.”

“I see.” The man’s eyes moved towards the others. “If I remember properly, the Commander in Highcastle died trying to stop the rampaging dragon, correct? Then my authority should be above whoever remains there.” He cleared his throat. “Send a message to the imperators in Highcastle to start scouring the northern areas of the city and inspecting those travelling the roads. Their target is a human travelling with a blonde dwarf and/or a red-headed half-elf, with short-horses carrying a dwarven brand.”

“He has blue eyes, and short brown hair.” Yselda spoke, a shake carrying in her voice. “He isn’t starved, and he sometimes appears as if he were of nobility, his hands are smooth too.”

“Irrelevant.” The reply was terse. “The unblessed ones usually learn to alter their own appearance rather quickly, and this one seems to know we could use his blood to track him, so he must have some experience.” Pausing, he frowned. “Also do not detail the nature of the threat in the message, only that they must temporarily magically-detain the people matching the description until we’ve come there to confirm their innocence.”

“Sir?” The robbed man appeared surprise at this.

“If he has experience then he will quickly notice any normal traps we set out. But it would be far likelier he wouldn’t have his guard up if the soldiers believe they are merely looking for a rogue mage.”

“But…” The man grimaced. “Right now Highcastle and its roads… there’s not going to be enough men, not when the Queen ordered them to assist in recovery and reconstruction.”

“A powerful enough unblessed one could curse every last drop of water in Highcastle and ensure everyone within those walls is dead before fall comes.” The black haired man snapped with a bark. “If the Queen finds out about this, I will personally take responsibility. We cannot allow a second calamity to occur.”

“Yes Inquisitor.” The robbed man bowed and turned around, moving towards the horses. The man wrote on a small piece of parchment and then opened a box that had been on the back of the horse, inside there had been a pigeon. After tying the message, the bird was released and it flew out towards the capital.

“What if he didn’t go towards Highcastle?” One of the soldiers spoke.

“South and West have too many towns and cities, not to mention there is a stronger Church presence in those directions.” The Inquisitor shook his head. “If he wishes to escape or slip through our fingers, then he must have headed North or East. Highcastle is the waypoint for anyone wanting to follow those routes.”

“We want to help.” Rainer spoke firmly, clenching his jaw as he stepped forward. “We are slaves, just tell us what we need to do. Tell us how we can be of use.”

“Please.” Yselda added with resolute eyes.

“Patron Cu had made arrangements long ago that everything that was his would be donated to the Church in the eventuality of his death without having a successor.” The man shook his head. “He may not have been a man of zeal, but he was one who’s given much to the Holy Sword.” Stepping forward, he placed a metal gloved hand on each of their shoulders. “You are slaves no longer, you are Initiates… even if you are a bit old for the position.”

It was the first sign of humour they’d seen from the imposing man, the coldness in his eyes waning only slightly as he allowed his stern expression to show the barest of smiles. But the frown returned. “I will leave you at Highcastle when we get there, you will be expected to train and aid the Church to rebuild.”

“But…!” Rainer felt his temper flare as he thought of the revenge he desired.

“Both of you would be burdens in a fight against an unblessed one.” The voice was firm. “As you are now, you’d only get in our way.”

“I can fight! I am good with a blade!” Rainer complained, face contorting into a deep scowl. “And no matter how you look at it, that man was weak.”

“Very well.” The armor clad man spoke with an odd look in his eyes, releasing their shoulders and stepping back four paces. “If you take three steps, I will allow you to continue with us.”

Immediately the minotaur set out to do just that, mentally preparing himself for what would most likely be a fight. In his mind, he told himself to raise his arms, and move forwards and prepare to dodge in case a blow came from the gauntleted figure.

In reality however, he found his muscles didn’t obey.

Simply put, his muscles did not so much as twitch. There was no movement whatsoever, as if the link between his mind and his body had been severed. He could still feel the earth beneath his feet, and yet he couldn’t even cause his neck muscles to tense.

Panic blossomed in his chest as his body would not respond to his will.

“I am waiting, Initiate.” The man crossed his thick arms and looked at the minotaur sternly.

Rainer would’ve opened his mouth to say something, but not even his throat responded to his will. He could even feel himself breathing, and yet he couldn’t control it any more than he could his arms. He was trapped within his own body.

Tak

From the corner of his eye, he saw Yselda having managed to take a step. Her jaw was tight, her face red and her neck to tense veins were bulging. The female minotaur had a permanent glare fixated on the man, her breathing heavy through her clenched teeth.

“That’s enough.” The man spoke, and suddenly the two minotaurs felt their bodies crumble as control was given back to them. “What you’ve just experienced was a low level paralysis blood-spell. If you can’t prevent such a parlor trick from gaining a hold of you, then you would surely be dead as the caster could finish you off with but a simple dagger.”

“Blood spell?” Yselda spoke, panting for breath as Rainer aided her to stand up.

“Yes, that is the specialty of unblessed ones.” The man spoke with a distasteful scowl. “They are those the Gods did not bless with a core, their magic seeps into their blood, turning it into a cursed unholy concoction. Their very flesh becomes poisonous, their presence harbinging calamities and death to everyone around them.”

“He may be a monster.” Yselda spoke. “But I do not believe he brought the dragon to rampage in Highcastle.”

At those words Rainer froze, a memory surfaced into his mind.

The Inquisitor laughed at her statement, the first true sound of amusement that had come from him since they’d met. “Indeed, were unblessed ones able to control dragons, things would be quite… different.” There was an amused expression.

But Rainer was not hearing him, his thoughts were elsewhere, in a recent memory.

The image clear as day in his mind’s eye. They’d been preparing to depart, and he had been loading the wagon with some crates when he’d noticed the human just standing at the barn entrance as he looked at the burning city. For a moment Rainer had been about to dismiss the wasted attention on the slave, but there had been an expression on the human’s face that had perturbed him.

Even now, the image had been ingrained into his memory.

One of the human smiling with a manic smile on his lips.

“I do not think he controlled the dragon.” The male minotaur spoke with a deep scowl. Deep inside he knew. He might not be sure of how, or why, but there was a certainty growing within his chest with every beat of his heart. “But I am sure he called it to destroy Highcastle.”

That the person responsible for Master’s death had also brought a calamity upon them all.

Yselda looked at Rainer with a slight frown, before she seemed to realize something and speaking up. “He also doesn’t know Common, or at least shouldn’t know much, he barely began learning it not that long ago.”

That made the Inquisitor look at her curiously, or rather, with his stony expression being perturbed solely by a millimetrically raised eyebrow. “And what was his native tongue?”

“I’d never heard it before, nor had the Master.” She shook her head. “Master had said it wasn’t the language of Dwarves, Elves, or Orcs.” The female minotaur continued. “And I can personally attest it wasn’t a language I’ve heard from Beast-Kin.”

That got the second brow to mimic the first. “Do you remember any words he said?”

“Fuk ou.” Rainer snorted with an irritated growl. “Seemed like an insult.”

“Eel maek dat duarv cunt kees may as.” Yselda added. “He usually said this while cleaning the meal’s dishes when he thought others couldn’t hear him... it sometimes felt like he was muttering a curse.”

“That doesn’t sound like Demonic.” The Inquisitor rubbed his metallic gauntlet against his chin, deep in thought and then shook his head.

“Sir, I think I’ve heard something similar once before.” The robbed man who’d dispatched the messenger pigeon spoke, seeming unsure. “It may be a coincidence since it’s just one word, but ‘Cunt’ in the language of Spirits means ‘Oh mighty one’.”

That made the Inquisitor’s brow fuse into a single continuous line that cast a deep shadow on his eyes, then he shook his head. “We have none here who’s communed with Spirits, nor a trapped one we could interrogate.” He gave a nod at Yselda and Rainer. “However, the detail of not being familiarized with Common will prove to our advantage since he will be far less likely to have left behind the dwarf or the half-elf.”

“Thank you, Sir.” The two minotaurs bowed.

“You are initiates now, and I am an Inquisitor.” The man marched towards his warhorse, the gray and brown splotched creature barely reacting to the massive armored man seating himself on top, a testament of the sheer power the quadruped held. “Let us ride, we have prey to hunt.”

**_**

###  **-Arwen**

My yawn was interrupted by a sneeze. Frankly, I cannot express in words how uncomfortable such a thing is. It very abruptly perturbed my morning meditation and leaving me feeling rather miffed at life in general for some reason.

Now out of this state of mind, I glanced at Blaire and Uryuc packing up their things to get ready for the road after our brief lunch. My stomach rumbled a complaint despite having just eaten and I sighed heavily. The plan to buy food had had… mixed results. As it turned out, everyone right now was selling high, almost double what Blaire had estimated during our talkings. And I was quite sure it wouldn’t be going down anytime soon, at least not until harvest time.

We didn’t have much of an alternative though, with the amount of caravans and people moving about the place, what little odds of hunting for food we may have had were reduced to nil, and unless we wanted to steal we would have to buy the food.

There was a team-consensus that stealing was going to be left as a last resort and only after we were somewhere a bit less crowded. So that meant carefully rationing our food. Which meant being hungry a lot but not to a debilitating degree… at least not yet. We just had to pick up the pace and hurry past Hightower and its localized bubble of inflated food prices.

And all the while, inside my head, I kept counting days.

Rëa had left the capital a little less than two weeks ago. In that time she’d have headed towards the north-east towards her ancient lair. However, Thruum was likely to have intercepted her somewhere along the way and the both of them headed west then south towards his new lair in the mountain-range.

How long would that take? How long would they rest? How much time would they spend together as their reunion before they’d each set out to do their own thing? Would Thruum decide to come look for me right away or would he put it off until it tickled his fancy? Gods I hoped it was the latter, I’d written enough about Thruum to know that once he set his eyes on an objective he would tirelessly pursue it.

“This is so unfair.” I muttered to myself in English. “Why am I being teased by vectors and trigonometry mathematics when I’m in a medieval setting?” There was a silent cry against the heavens. “I don’t even know their distance or speed!”

Not for the first time, Blaire and Uryuc looked at me worriedly but kept quiet. So I was reduced to silent grumbling and speculation of the ETA to doom.

Clopclop clopclop

Clopclop clopclop

The horse’s hooves sounded off on the hard road with a rhythmic sort of noise that was, strangely, soothing. I noticed that the density of caravans, carts, wagons, and people in general was going up steadily. My eyes followed the road, it soon became clear the closer to Highcastle the road got, the thicker the number of travellers.

Several miles ahead I could actually see a crowd gathered around the road, gold and white uniformed soldiers were scattered around the area… and they looked like they were inspecting the wagons before allowing them to continue down the road that lead towards Hightower and also southwards. It was odd considering how far they were from the city gates, probably so that the wagon-jam didn’t happen at the very entrance of the city. What would they be doing? It didn’t seem like they were taking stuff out of the carts so I doubted it was some sort of tax.

I grimaced at the realization we were riding stolen horses that were branded.

“Stop.” I told the others, signalling for them to move to the side so we could talk uninterrupted and outside the range of the merchant’s curious ears. The both of them complied and I got off the horse, pointing at the gathering of guards in the distance. “Steal horses.” I said, tapping the rear of my steed. “No good.”

They looked at each other and grimaced. “Circle?” Uryuc made a motion starting beneath him, going off the road to the left, and then following the horizon before stopping on the continuation of the road way ahead of the gathering of soldiers.

Blaire shook her head. “No food.” And she was right, right now anyone getting off the road to go through the bushes would get spotted, so a lot of distance would be needed… and there would be no merchants along that route. Our food was already stretched thin enough.

I considered the problem for a moment. “One circle, three horses.” I said, repeating Uryuc’s gesture. “Two go, zero horse.” The second gesture followed along the road. “Circle plus food. Zero-horse plus coin.”

A pause, nods from everyone. “Who circle?” Asked Blaire.

**_**

###  **-Blaire**

The argument was intense in a bizarre way. Each of them had an idea regarding who to send to circle around, and none liked the ideas of the others. Uryuc didn’t want to send Blaire because he didn’t trust her with the horses. Blaire didn’t want to send Uryuc for the same reason.

And everyone but Arwen agreed that sending Arwen was a big mistake. His near total inability to understand and speak Common would ensure that any encounter he had would leave quite the impression on whoever he attempted to talk to.

“If Uryuc horses bad. If Blaire horses bad. Ask Why Uryuc Good with Arwen. Ask Why Blaire Good with Arwen.” He was heavily pouting while trying to get his point across.

If Uryuc was bad with the horses? Did he mean mistrust? Then the second part…

The half-elf and her shared a glance. “...he’s asking why we don’t trust either one alone with the horses but would trust being alone with him… right?”

“Seems so…” Uryuc scratched the back of his head. “...Is he complaining we’re arguing over who goes with the horses instead of who goes with him?”

“Probably.” Blaire shrugged. “Either that, or because we’re not arguing who’s not going to go with him.”

“I’ll take the horses.” The half-elf blurted for the upteenth time, but raised his hands before Blaire could counter him. “And I will leave everything of value with you save my sword and the food.” As he said this, he looked at her with a serious expression.

The dwarf sighed and nodded. “Uryuc circle.” She conceded.

Arwen didn’t seem quite as disappointed to not be the one with the horses as she’d expected him to be, the human instead immediately bringing out the drawn map and pulling Uryuc and Blaire to huddle around it. His finger poked at the spot above Hightower. “Uryuc, Blaire, Arwen, here.” He said, and then moved the finger downwards to an horizontal line that cut the river. “There.”

With his foot, he drew two parallel curved lines, and beneath them a single straight one. “Bridge.” Blaire said without needing to wonder further.

“Bridge.” Arwen nodded, turning to the half-elf. “Uryuc, go bridge, two days. No Blare, no Arwen, Uryuc go.”

That brought a frown. “Go where?”

The human shook his head. “Three days. Yes Blaire, yes Arwen, Go.” He pointed at the southern edge of the map. “No Blaire, no Arwen. Go.” He then poked at the map everywhere, then pauses. “Blaire, Arwen, Go. No Uryuc? Two days. No Uryuc? Go.”

They look at each other. “Whoever reaches the bridge first waits two days for the others.” Blaire’s jaw tightened. “And if the others don’t get there before then, they should carry on without them.”

Blaire felt a slight surprise at the sudden apprehension in Uryuc’s face at the statement. “No.” He replied.

Arwen shook his head. “Yes.” He retorted. “Uryuc go bridge, Arwen dead, Blaire dead. Ask days many?”

The redhead’s lips thinned as he glared at the map. “Five days.” He intoned.

“No.” The human stated flatly. “Two days.” A pause, then one more word. “Cu ask days many?”

She could practically see Uryuc’s face fall. Cu was undoubtedly going to send someone to hunt them down the instant he got a town or city. If Blaire and Arwen… or Uryuc… missed the meeting because they’d been killed, then the longer whoever had reached the bridge waited, then the likelier the hunters would find them too.

The plan left a bitter taste in her mouth.

**_**

###  **-??????**

He was underground again.

His wrists were chained to the piece of wood above him, forcing them to remain above his head. Cuffs kept his ankles equally restrained against the piece of wood at his feet. Immediately he reached out to cast a spell to break the manacles, but nothing happens.

“So they sealed my magic.” He grumbled while looking around the dark room.

It was a large room separated into two parts. One was where he’d been chained up, a set of thick black metal bars separating his cell from the only door leading out of the room. There were other cells besides his own, but they were empty.

On the other side of the barrs was a wooden table stained with dark black-ish marks all over. There were chains hanging from the roof and metal loops pinned to the floor.

He knew a torture room when he saw one.

For a moment he struggled against the chains once more, only to give up on wasting effort uselessly. His eyes traversed the room while he searched for any new detail he might have missed. But it seemed there was nothing he could use right now.

A heavy sigh followed by him tightening his jaw shut. He’d known it would come down to this if he was caught alive. There would be no option but to endure until he died or rescue came. But he had ordered the others to leave, and had sacrificed himself with the distraction to buy them time.

There was a whimsical thought that crossed his mind.

What a shame that he’d never see the sea again.

**_**

###  **-Arwen**

“Called it, should’ve been the one to take the horses.” I grumbled in English as one of the soldiers had taken one good look our way and begun shouting as he sprinted towards us. I recognized the uniform, they were from the Church, which meant that this world’s equivalent of the KGB was singling me out. “Fuck.”

I didn’t need to even wonder whether they were just coincidentally mistaking me for someone else they were looking for. First, after what I’ve gone through, such convenient thing felt very unlikely. Second, ever heard of when the KGB was hunting for Mr Rabbit in the forest?

They came out a week latter with a bear all battered and bruised claiming he was Mr Rabbit.

No thank you.

I dropped everything that wasn’t inside my pockets. “Go!” I shoved Blaire towards the traffic-jam of people hoping she’d take the hint and disappear among the spectating bodies while I broke into a dead sprint sticking close to the crowd of caravans and merchants, I avoided stepping into the crowd since it would slow me down, but also didn’t get too far from them to avoid giving them the easy choice of shooting me down with an arrow or some long range spell casting.

“Why the fuck did I have to go ahead and make a shitty fucking medieval secret police!?” I berated myself as I ran, looking over my shoulder and thanking all the Gods and Goddesses above and below that I was not weighed down by armour like the screaming soldiers.

Not that it mattered, seeing the horses starting to break from the ranks as they galloped towards me, I was quite sure no amount of running was going to get me out of this sticky situation.

At least it seemed they’d completely ignored Blaire. “Think, you stupid fuck, think.” I was already gasping for breath as I kept running, the soldiers were screaming orders at the crowd, some were starting to react and move away from me. “Oh, right, the crowd.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. I pointed my finger to the sky in the general opposite direction the soldiers were coming from. Taking as deep a breath as I could manage, I screamed at the top of my lungs. “DRAGON!! DRAGON!!” I screamed, and kept screaming as I plunged into the crowd.

Was it mean of me to use the very recent trauma and terror these people had developed from Rëa’s attack? Why yes, yes it was. But was it worth it? Yup.

Some of the peasants or those walking on their own had reacted instantly and began running without so much as looking back, and though there were some who were looking for the threat, the mob was already spreading in a rush to get away from there as quickly as possible.

The soldiers that had been charging towards me, both those on horse and those on foot, had very suddenly found themselves a tide of panicked riders, wagons, and riders as the crowd was desperately dispersing in every direction away from the direction the threat was coming from.

I took the opportunity to instantly do a U-turn and follow the mob to try and lose myself into their numbers, keeping my head low and sticking close to one of the wagons to use as cover. Every passing second I prayed that the stampeding mob would carry enough inertia to break through the check-point, that the chaos would let me escape.

It was, sadly, futile.

One moment I was running with my head lowered and my eyes madly darting around. I’d barely registered the sensation of pooling magic around me, and the next instant I had been yoinked. My body flew up and away from the wagon I was using as cover like some invisible giant claw had grabbed me and thrown me across the field.

I screamed as for a very brief second I soared a meter or two over the masses. I was weighless for only a split second, then I began to fall and crashed against the ground. My body was not very happy about that, and it made damn sure to leave its opinion very clear. It was adrenaline that stopped me from focusing too much on the pain and instead had me staring around in a desperate attempt to find out what the fuck had just happened.

Then I spotted it, the figure was floating a couple dozen meters over the checkpoint, it wore orange and gold robes, the Holy Sword painted in black on its chest.

It was a windmage, or a spirit mage with several wind-spirits under is control. Didn’t matter, I had little doubt they were a cut above your ordinary spellslinger.

“Fuck my life.” I muttered, as I realized I’d been thrown towards where the mob was much more scattered. I couldn’t spot any Church soldiers, but there was little doubt they’d be here and fast.

The robbed figure extended its hand towards me, the magic of the spell beginning to swirl. “Oh shit!” I didn’t hesitate, running straight towards the nearest tree. At this distance the spell HAD to use line of sight, I had to break it before…

Yoink.

I screamed again as I was grabbed by the invisible hand and thrown straight up. My eyes widened in panic at the growing distance between me and the ground. Ten meters, fifteen, twenty… thirty? I was not going to survive this fall. Fear turned panic, and as my inertia died and switched direction, the fear started to multiply at an exponential rate.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!” Desperation was rushing through me as I focused on the only possible option I had to survive: magic. Logically I knew I was screwed, I had no control and knew no spells. But did I have an alternative? No. My option was to try something and most likely die, or try nothing and certainly die.

The mana rushed through my body like a warm blanket, unadulterated panic made me draw everything I had and spread it through every fiber of my being as the image of being indestructible was the sole focus of the entirety of my being.

The ground rushed up to meet me head on.

YOINK

The invisible hand grasped my torso and the fall quite quickly slowed, before I was thrown back up. I’d still been screaming mind you, but it had not been until I’d started to fall down for the third time that it clicked in my brain that the robed mage was toying with me.

By the eighth toss, my limbs were shaking from the adrenaline high I’d been going through, the mana that had been burning throughout the whole of my being had dispersed or gotten burnt out. The mage was too far away for me to do anything about it, and at no point of my up-down seesaw did I get close enough to the ground I could at least try to hold on…

So I resigned myself, escape wasn’t possible unless I suddenly found a way to hit a target several hundred meters away with crippling force… and managed to land the hit. So that was a big nope for me.

It’s surprising how accepting the inevitability of a situation can make you shift perspective. “Oy!” I waved at the mage, then pointed upwards. “Higher!” Hey, if I wasn’t going to be able to escape from wind-magic-bungee-jumping hell, I might as well try to enjoy it while it lasts. “Yeah!” I shouted and laughed as I began to fall.

This time the wind didn’t pull me back up when I got near enough to the ground, instead, it threw me sideways. “Oof.” The earth blurred beneath me until my foot touched ground, then heaven and earth began to whirl wildly out of control, switching with one another at dizzying speed. If I hit something along the way, I didn’t notice.

Turns out that taunting the wind mage was both a horrible and a brilliant idea.

“Again!” I said while just laying on my back as I could feel how the planet spun. I had to make a considerable effort not to puke.

With shaking legs and a very messed up sense of balance, I managed to stand up and grasp the nearby tree for support while my feet danced beneath me at their own accord. My brain was starting to secede enough processing power away from the task of balancing myself upright towards considering my current situation.

I was barely standing, I was next to a tree, Earth was dancing ‘You spin me right round’; not much else. Oh, and the wind mage was floating above the treeline and looking down at me, the robes fluttering under a powerful localized gale of some kind.

I think I noticed she had shining blue eyes, but it wasn’t like I could verify as I was thrown away from the tree into the air. My body traced a circle around the mage’s floating body and then was shot up. “Wee!” I managed to taunt further while closing my eyes and spreading my arms wide.

I’m about to puke, but damn if I was going to let see me complain about the free ride.

The movements I was being put through had gone up several notches. Now it wasn’t just lazyly tossing me up and catching me or spinning me in wide circles. Now it was like I’d been tossed into a large tumble dryer set to hyperspeed after it was kicked down the longest flight of stairs in the world while a magnitude 10 earthquake was happening at the same time.

Up, down, around, sideways, back, down, counterclockwise, front, down, left, left, right up. My body was a ragdoll in the deafening currents that buffeted me from all directions. Fucking wind-mage, did this woman have a bottomless pit of mana or something?

“Weeee…” I muttered weakly between coughs from nearly failed attempts to hold my stomach in.

The shakedown continued for… maybe five minutes? By the end of it I was unceremoniously dropped and I was back to square one of having to struggle with my brain to tell it that no, the world wasn’t spinning so fast days could pass by in seconds.

I was forcefully put face-down against the ground, and a heavy set of cuffs made the position abruptly much more uncomfortable and painful. Two pairs of hands forced me to my feet much to the reproach of their shaking-jelly state of existence. My gaze was half blurred, as I vaguely registered the mage landing.

“One star, the wait time for the ride is fucking eternal.” I mumbled with a cock-sure grin, proud of my personal victory of having somehow managed to keep my lunch from escaping this whole time. Because why wouldn’t I? It seemed like the only meaningful thing I’d be managing to pull off today.

Unintelligible words were exchanged, questions were apparently asked, and I was apparently resisting arrest while also being unable to properly walk straight… or something along those lines I’m guessing, because I got pummeled by a whole lot of fists and boots before being dragged off towards a heavily barred wagon that had two other guys chained up inside.

Sitting down on the floor, I glanced at the closest one as he stared out the barred windows with a deep panic about something or another.

“So, first time?” I asked in English and chuckled at the looks of confusion they gave me.

“Anyway, so I move the blade from his throat to his balls and suddenly he’s all sweet talk and stuttering!” I chuckle at myself. “It’s so weird how so many will value their ability to fuck more than their life, it’s almost like they only live for it.”

The other two prisoners had been increased into five, all of them were nervous as their eyes kept dancing around the prison-wagon and out the couple barred windows before settling on me, appearing unsettled, and going back to looking every other which way.

Someone outside hammered against the door and shouted something, the other prisoners flinched and shrunk.

“Oh fuck off!” I shouted back. “Your whole organization is built around a two thousand year old lie! The High Imperious betrayed the First Pope and lied about the origin of demons!” More hammering and words, angrier words. “I made you guys because my editor insisted the idea of adding a Warhammer-inspired gore-friendly conspiracy-heavy inquisition to my story would give it enough edginess to draw in a broader teen audience! And I’d been stupid enough to do it!” I laughed some more. “And it’s because of you dumb fucks and all the convoluted secretive scheming bullshit that I ended up on a hiatus while I tried to figure out how to untangle it!”

The door swung open, a soldier stormed inside, there was no need for words, his intent was clear. He grasped the collar of my shirt and pulled my face up while his fist came in the opposite direction. I saw stars spiral in the darkness from my closed eyes.

“C’mon!” I spat, laughing up at him. “My grandmother hits harder than you.” He didn’t need to understand me, his fist came back to my head. “Is that all you got?”

The soldier continued until my mouth was bloodied and my left eye had begun to swell shut before tossing me back down. “Is that all?” I taunted, coughing and spitting out blood.

Anger flashed through his face, and had begun to spin around to face me again when a sharp word made him stop.

I grinned. “That’s right, you can’t go overboard, not before the interrogation.” I spoke, spitting a bloody glob at his feet. “Can’t bludgeon me too hard or else I won’t be able to answer the questions during the torture. Not that I’ll be able to answer anything anyways since I can barely understand Common and no one here understands English.”

He growled, the sharp word from outside was repeated more harshly.

“Go little man. Order.” I crudely taunt in Common.

He’s about to step inside, the order has new words to them and the man goes pale before rushing out, sending one last death-glare my way.

When the door shuts I frown at it, my mind wanders through what was to come and its inevitability. How I’d be taken to some dungeon somewhere and, following Inquisition MO, get tortured just in case I happen to know something they may find useful before being summarily executed. I may get ‘picked’ as someone worthy of being spared in exchange of ‘service’ to the Chruch, but I’d be forced to sign some magical contracts that would make the shackles I’d worn at the manor seem like wet tissue-paper.

Still, I was not afraid of them. I would’ve rather not get caught, but now that they had captured me I wasn’t going to just roll over and beg while they flayed me into bloody strips. The Church of Swords was an edgy conspiracy nut-case I should’ve never created, and I planned to treat them as such.

Or I’d die laughing at the joke at least.

**_**

###  **-?????**

“Today is a special day.” The human spoke soothingly, the pliers locking tightly around the demon’s fingernail.

“...”

“Umf, still being so silent eh? How impolite.” He replied, grasping the pliers and pulling.

“...!” The demon’s eyes closed slightly, a grunt reaching his throat, but his lips not parting.

“Worry not, I will get you to talk soon enough.” A cold laugh followed. “Take my word, by then we'll talk of many many things, things like how you’d reached the sanctum, and who helped you.”

The demon was breathing hard even through his effort to remain appearing indifferent and unaffected.

“Not even a simple little comment?” The human leaned away and pulled out a piece of jerky from his pocket. “Just give me your name and I’ll give you some delicious meat. How long ago did you last eat?”

“...”

“You’re no fun.” The man laughed as he took the piece of jerky into his mouth, there was a knocking at the door. “Anyways, I’ll continue with you once I greet my new guest!”

The human vanished from his line of sight, the sound of the door opening and chains rattling was heard. “Oh, such beautiful pale skin! I just know I’ll enjoy you.” A momentary pause. “I’ll take it from here captain; oh how thankful I am you’ve brought this interesting morsel. What are the orders?”

The faint noise of paper being unfurled could barely be heard. The human lunatic appeared to hum to himself happily. “Oho… then I shall make sure he remains alive and speech-abled until the Inquisitor gets here.”

The demon stirred and leaned to look at what was happening, his nose caught the scent of a human but it was slightly different to what he’d felt it should have been. His eyes fell on the chained human as he was pushed towards the cell adjacent to the one he was made to spend most time in.

The prisoner yawned and shrugged as the door was closed behind him. “So this is my new temporal abode…”

“...!” Disbelief coursed through the demon as he watched the new human with widened eyes, disbelieving what his ears were hearing.

“What a weird language.” The older man commented as he rubbed his chin, looking at the human, he slammed his cane against the bars. “What’s your name boy?”

The younger human was slightly startled but only barely. “Do you really want to ruin the moment like that?” He scratched his chin. “Let’s see, how was it…” A weary grin followed. “I no speak common.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” The warden said idly, smiling. “No matter, I’ll have you singing soon enough.”

“Smile all you want, just give me the opportunity and I’ll shove those rotten teeth down your throat.” The other replied with a sweet cold smile. “Consider it a future free dentist appointment.”

“I don’t like your attitude.” The older human frowned. “I’ll start with your right hand after lunch.” Turning towards the demon, he grumbled. “One talks too much in an unintelligible language, the other barely makes a sound…”

“Wait…” The human prisoner had stopped focusing on the older one and had instead discovered the demon as he lay strapped to the table. A gasp escaped him. “Oh fuck, it’s you!”

The demon narrowed his eyes. “Have we met before?”

The old man froze mid step and swivelled to look at the demon, aghast.

But the most startled one was the newest prisoner. “Holy shit! You know English!?”


End file.
